Facilitating graft suspect: Polyclinic top official summoned

The court questioned the admission of a former magistrate at the hospital.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday summoned Polyclinic Executive Director (ED) to explain why a former magistrate who is facing corruption charges has been admitted at the hospital.

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi asked Polyclinic Executive Director Zahid Hussain to appear in person before the court to explain the reasons behind admitting Farrukh Nadeem, a former magistrate, at the hospital.

However, media coordinator at Polyclinic, Dr Tanveer Ahmed claimed the hospital administration had shifted the magistrate to Pims, admitting that he was at Polyclinic for the past eight days. He claimed that he had multiple problems including heart and kidney disorders.

When told that this violated court orders, he said the hospital administration did not turn down any patient.

The suspect has been shifted to Pakistan Institution of Medical Sciences (Pims).

Nadeem was arrested by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on September 16 from outside IHC after rejection of his bail after registration of a first information report (FIR) against him for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs1.5 million in a land transfer case.

The petitioner, Raja Walayat Abbasi contended that admitting the suspect at Polyclinic was illegal.

The counsel alleged that the Polyclinic ED is a close friend of the suspect and had remained in touch with him during his physical remand.

Secretary finance summoned

In a separate case, the same bench issued a notice to secretary finance in response to a contempt application. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui asked Dr Waqar Masood to appear before the court on October 9 to explain why court orders were not complied with.

The court had ordered the government to pay 20 per cent special allowance to employees of departments affiliated with federal ministries in June and had ordered finance ministry to disburse the special allowance without discrimination in response to identical petitions filed by employees working under the ministry’s umbrella.

Later, Aftab Hassan filed a contempt application against the finance ministry contending that it had failed to comply with the order.

Joint Secretary of finance ministry, Muhammad Khurshid Anwar maintained that the decision will end in the ministry bearing a loss of Rs50 billion annually. The court, however, questioning a discriminatory procedure, noted that after the former premier’s orders some employees were getting benefits while others were deprived.

Deputy Attorney General Niazi informed the court that ministry had challenged the decision and that the IHC registration did not fix the case. He also requested the court to give the appeal some time.

The court observed that the ministry should implement the order.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1^st, 2013.