
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday accepted the bail application of former director general (DG) health Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan and project director Dr Ghulam Subhani who had earlier been arrested for purchasing substandard hepatitis C vaccines.
The petitioners’ legal advisors – Advocate Ghulam Muhiuddin and Mian Muhibullah Kakakhel – told a three-member registry bench comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk, Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani and Justice Iqbal Hamidur Rehman that their clients were wrongly accused.
The legal advisors claimed the authority to probe these allegations lay within the jurisdiction of the Drug Act and not under the Anti-Corruption Establishment’s (ACE) purview. They said their clients were still arrested by the latter.
Both advisors also blamed the laboratory, where the tests were conducted, of mala fide intentions, claiming their clients could not be punished on the basis of the lab reports.
After hearing the arguments, the bench accepted the bail plea of Dr Khan and Subhani, who were arrested by the ACE on April 2 along with a storekeeper identified as Mubarak Shah.
On February 6, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) took suo motu notice over purchase of substandard interferon vaccines in various hospitals of the province. It consequently ordered ACE to investigate the matter and check the quality of the injections, which cost Rs250 million.
On Wednesday, the PHC ordered Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to contact Interpol to bring back to Pakistan the owner of Pharmedic, the pharmaceutical company which allegedly provided the injections.
PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan also directed the ACE to make arrangements to recover the money paid to buy 1.1 million substandard vials, saying if the company fails to return the sum its land should be confiscated.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 14th, 2013.
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