Substandard drugs: Court denies bail request of officials

Judge denied the extension of pre-arrest bail for Chohan due to his absence from case proceedings.

PESHAWAR: An Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) court turned down bail requests of health officials arrested over allegations of purchasing substandard Hepatitis-C vaccines for the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) health department. Arrested officials include former director general (DG) health Dr Sharif Ahmad, former hepatitis C control programme project director Ghulam Subhani and shopkeeper Mubarak Shah. Former DG health Muhammad Ali Chohan and drug inspector Zakir Shah had earlier managed to obtain pre-arrest bail. On Monday, ACE Judge Fazal-e-Subhan refused to accept bail for Ahmad and Subhani. He denied the extension of pre-arrest bail for Chohan due to his absence from case proceedings.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2013.