Counterfeit documents: Two ‘teachers’ imprisoned over fake appointment letters

Remand of former director general health extended till today.

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) anti-corruption court on Monday sentenced two ‘teachers’ to two years imprisonment over charges of having obtained fake appointment letters.

Noorul Bashar and Mushtaq Ali, residents of Mardan district, were earlier accused of forging recruitment letters supposedly prepared by the education department. They were posted as teachers in Chitral district based on the forged documents.

The teachers were transferred to Shangla district, Malakand where they worked for sometime before being transferred to Mardan. Later, the teachers were interrogated by the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and arrested after their documents were found to be counterfeit.

On Monday, Anti-Corruption Judge Fazl-e-Subhan sentenced Bashar and Ali to two years imprisonment and imposed a penalty of Rs20,000. The court also ordered an investigation into two education department clerks Fazal Hussain and Akbar Hussain along with a teacher Imtiaz Ali.



In a separate case, Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Ilyas extended physical remand for former director general health Muhammad Ali Chohan till Tuesday (today).

Chohan was arrested from the Peshawar High Court premises on Friday over his alleged involvement in supplying substandard interferon vials – used to cure Hepatitis C – to government-run hospitals in 2009.

Three other people, including former DG health Muhammad Shareef, former project director hepatitis control programme Ghulam Subhani and a storekeeper identified as Mubarak Shah have already been put behind bars.

Chohan had earlier managed to obtain pre-bail arrest, but his plea was turned down by PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan during the case hearing on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2013