In pictures: Pakistan’s hospital of last resort faces closure

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  Margret Walsh, an Irish nun who has run St Joseph’s Hospice as the chief administrator since 2009, comforts, Halima Fatimah, a patient. As wealthy donors and foreign benefactors fled the violence and unrest, so too did the endowments the hospice relies on to treat some 100 patients who visit daily.

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  Pakistani patients at St Joseph’s Hospice, Ashiq Kaka, 53, centre, and William, 55, both recovering from a stroke, sit in the garden. The hospice has a monthly budget of about 1.5 million rupees — $15,000 — but officials there say they have been facing a shortfall of half a million rupees (about $5,000) a month. They’ve borrowed money and cut costs as low as they can, but there’s not much more they can do.

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  Nurse Rakhal, cleans the wounds of Pakistani patient, Zahid Rehmat, 33, who was shot by robbers. Rising costs from ever-increasing utility bills has deeply affected St Joseph’s, said Rehmat Michael Hakim, chairman of the hospital’s executive committee that oversees the functions of the hospice. He said the hospice relies on generators during electricity outages to warm paralysed patients.

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  Hina Pal, 26, a Pakistani patient, who suffers a spinal cord injury, attends her daily physiotherapy session.

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  Melda Messi, 65, a Pakistani patient, who also suffers a spinal cord injury waits her turn to a have a physiotherapy session.

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  Mariam, 11, father’s name and family are unknown, who is mentally disabled and was left by the gate of St Joseph’s Hospice, when she was a toddler. The hospital borrowed money and cut costs as low as they can, but there’s not much more they can do.

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  Zohra Hussein, 51, a Pakistani patient, lies in her bed having her lunch, at the female ward.

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  Shamshad Kala studies English in the woman’s ward.

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  Mohammed Aqeel, 37, suffered a spinal cord injury in a car crash.

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  Sonia Shawkat, 21, a Pakistani nurse, washes the hands of, Ayesha Gul Rahman, 26, a paralysed patient.

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  Pakistani women, who live nearby, pray before walking into the church to attend a Sunday mass, at the hospice.

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  Pakistani patients, sit in the hospital’s waiting area.

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  Pakistani nurse Farzana Yassmine, 31, plays with Caleb, 1, and Mariam 11, and other patients.

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  Elderly Pakistani patients at the hospital.

Since 1964, St Joseph’s Hospice in Rawalpindi has treated hundreds of maimed and sick patients, overwhelmingly Muslims, who had nowhere else to go even as Pakistan experienced two military coups, wars in neighbouring Afghanistan and a dangerous rise in militancy. Now a shortfall of funds threatens to shut the hospital down. All photos by Muhammed Muheisen / AP Photo