NAB says suspects connived with regulators, other pharmas to hike product prices
The court sent RG Pharmaceutica Managing Director Mian Khalid Mahmood and CEO Tariq Haider to jail on judicial remand after they were produced before the court on the expiry of their physical remand.
The suspects were arrested from Islamabad High Court premises following the dismissal of their pre-arrest bail applications on February 16.
A division bench comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani had dismissed the applications, and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) subsequently arrested them.
NAB officials have alleged that the MD and the CEO, in connivance with some Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) officials and other pharmaceutical companies, increased the prices of some medicines in 2012.
NAB officials had requested on Tuesday that the court extend physical remand of the suspects.
Officials said the suspects and their accomplices sold medicines of local brands at the same rates as foreign brands.
They said the companies purchased raw materials in Swiss Francs but later showed purchase prices in Euros.
The counsel for the suspects opposed NAB’s request for an extension in physical remand, arguing that no loss was caused to the national exchequer.
The court sent the suspects to jail on judicial remand for 14 days.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 2nd, 2016.
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