JPMC board to probe chairman’s health

FIA says the 4 men accused in the K&KI case have fallen ill several times over the last 2 years.

KARACHI: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) issued a notice to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) administration on Friday, asking them to set up a medical board to investigate the alleged health problems that are keeping the chairman and directors of the Khanani and Kalia International (K&KI) at the hospital.

Since his arrest on November 28, 2008, K&KI chairman Hanif Kalia has spent almost all of his time at the JPMC, said FIA Sindh director Muazzam Jah Ansari, who believed that the chairman was using his “medical condition” as a way of avoiding jail time and availing “luxuries” at the hospital.

Hanif Kalia is one of the three men from K&KI who were arrested by the FIA Karachi since November 2008. After a case was registered against the company’s chairman and directors on November 15, 2008, on charges of transferring $1 billion out of Pakistan through illegal money channels (hawala and hundi), the FIA had arrested K&KI directors Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani as well as Dubai-based Atif Aziz Polani, who had allegedly helped the accused in their illegal transactions.

After a physical remand of 10 to 12 days, all four suspects were sentenced to jail on a judicial remand. They were also denied bail from the high court, while an appeal for bail by Hanif Kalia, based on medical reasons, is currently with the Supreme Court.

However, all four men have been admitted to the JPMC on various occasions over the last two years with “medical issues”, said Ansari, who claimed that they are being provided with “luxurious facilities” at the hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.