Veteran comedian Muhammad Siddique, known widely as Abid Charlie, has been moved from Jinnah Hospital to Asaaf Hospital in Johar Town, where his treatment is continuing.
Drama producer Arshad Chaudhry has taken responsibility for Abid Charlie’s treatment.
According to Chaudhry, the actor’s family were not satisfied with the treatment being provided at Jinnah Hospital. He said he personally made arrangements and moved the actor by ambulance to Asaaf Hospital, where better medical facilities are being provided.
Chaudhry said helping Abid Charlie and his family in a difficult time was his duty, and that he would continue the actor’s treatment under his own supervision.
Abid Charlie’s wife thanked Chaudhry for coming to their assistance and moving her husband to hospital. She said she had not been satisfied with the treatment at Jinnah Hospital, and that the best treatment facilities were being provided at Asaaf Hospital.
The family’s assessment of care at Jinnah Hospital is their own. The Lahore Times has approached the hospital’s administration for a response and will publish it.
The story arrives in the same week as accounts of the actress Muskan Malik selling milk at a roadside stall in Quetta, and the two belong together.
Both describe performers who worked for decades without any structure that survives the end of their working life — no pension, no health cover, no institutional provision beyond a modest welfare stipend. In both cases the gap has been filled by an individual: a producer in one, public attention in the other.
Individual generosity is not a system. That a well-known comedian’s hospital care depends on a producer’s personal decision is a description of what is missing, not a solution to it.
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