April 05, 2007	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 16, 1428

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LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), April 4: An official inquiry into theft of medicines from the store of the Landi Kotal Agency Headquarters Hospital led to an attack on the medical superintendent by the accused.

Abdul Halim, the suspended storekeeper, with his colleague Fazlur Rehman allegedly barged into the office of Medical Superintendent Dr Zar Alam on Tuesday and assaulted him.

The situation was pacified after the intervention of Senator Hafiz Abdul Malik and officials of the local political administration.

Earlier, both the parties had called their armed relatives to the hospital.

Sources said the Fata health department had initiated the inquiry against the storekeeper for his alleged involvement in the theft of medicines worth Rs3 million and their sale in the market.

The sources said Abdul Halim and Fazlur Rehman were pressuring Dr Alam for ‘favouring’ them in the inquiry.

The MS was of the view that the medicines had been stolen before he took over the post.

According to a member of the inquiry committee, tens of thousands of injections, capsules and tablets and 15.000 disposable syringes had been stolen.

The missing medicines were issued to the hospital in March/April of 2006 but were never brought to the hospital store.

It was believed that they were sold in the market, observed the inquiry official.

The official said the storekeeper had failed to show procedural issuance of the medicine to patients.

The official said that Abdul Halim had lured Dr Feroz Shah and Dr Rehman into providing him prescription chits for the missing medicines. Dr Shah had prescribed certain medicines which could be prescribed by a gynaecologist, the official added.

When contacted, Dr Alam said he had nothing to do with the inquiry as it had been ordered by the health department and initiated before his posting at the hospital.

He said he would not influence the inquiry.