|
|
|
| May 22, 2002 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 8,1423 |
Serving sentence in airconditioned room
MULTAN, May 21: The convicted brother of provincial health secretary has been admitted to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) to serve his sentence in an airconditioned room while the members of the medical board who assisted the court in the petition continue to suffer.
Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi, a brother of Punjab Health Secretary Hassan Waseem Afzal, has been admitted to the PIC for the last two weeks reportedly under the special permission of Institute’s Chief Executive Dr Jawad Sajid.
He has been given an airconditioned room adjacent to the room where former chief minister Mian Manzoor Hussain Wattoo is undergoing sentence after being convicted by an accountability court.
Doctors at PIC told Dawn that Dr Ashrafi had always avoided the visiting doctors under one pretext or the other. A few days ago when a doctor of the night shift reported on Dr Ashrafi’s chart that the patient was sleeping comfortably, he reportedly became infuriated and abused the PIC staff.
The PIC chief then directed that only consultants should visit the room.
A former deputy surgeon medico-legal, Dr Ashrafi and medico-legal officer Muhammad Afzal were sentenced by the Lahore High Court for contempt, forging false evidence and issuing a false certificate. They were sentenced to five years imprisonment and Rs20,000 fine each.
On an appeal, the Supreme Court on May 14, 2001, reduced the sentence to one year jail term each. A review petition was dismissed on June 13, 2001.
The convicts were neither arrested nor suspended. Instead, Dr Ashrafi’s brother, Hassan Waseem Afzal who had taken over charge as the Punjab health secretary, tried to institute a fresh inquiry on the basis of an affidavit by Dr Zainab Parveen, a member of the medical board. The affidavit, submitted three days after the conviction of the two doctors, was not produced at any stage of judicial proceedings.
But despite the passage of more than three months, the health department has neither taken any action against Dr Zainab. It has yet to decide the fate of the three members of second medical board served with the show cause notice under the removal from service ordinance, on the basis of an affidavit filed by Dr Zainab.
The three senior doctors had assisted the Lahore High Court in the habeas corpus petition filed by Mushtaq Husain.
A bailiff had in the second week of December 2000 recovered an unlawfully confined boy from the Sambrial police station in Sialkot district. Deputy medico-legal surgeon Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi and medico-legal officer Muhammad Afzal denied, in their report to the court, tell-tale signs of police torture on Nadeem Iqbal.
Justice Sharif got boy examined by four Mayo Hospital doctors. Their report belied the medico-legal report of doctors Ashrafi and Afzal. Another board of four senior doctors, constituted on a court directive, concurred the Mayo report.
Dr Zainab had alleged in the affidavit (dated Jan 8, 2001) that her senior colleagues made her sign a false report against the two convicts.
The affidavit was formally sent to the health department through letters (dated 27.6.2001 and 8.8.2001) when Dr Ashrafi’s brother Hassan Waseem Afzal had taken charge as provincial health secretary on June 14, 2001.
The Lahore High Court convicted on Feb 11 Health Secretary Hassan Waseem Afzal and Lahore SSP Aftab Ahmad Cheema of contempt and sentenced to varying jail terms and fines. A division bench of the Lahore High Court later suspended the sentence.
Meanwhile, a health department summary (dated 15.9.2001) titled “insult, humiliation and punishment of two members of medical profession”, was sent to the then Punjab governor seeking his approval to take action against the three members of the second board on the basis of the affidavit.
Dr Zainab met Punjab Minister for Health Prof Mahmood Chaudhry on Aug 19, 2001, and handed him over a written complaint against the other members of the special board.
|
|
|
|
