ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government which had begun 2014 by easing out three big, undesirable officers, chiefs of Nepra, Nadra and AGPR, looks closing the year by protecting three officers who have the unsavoury reputation in the bureaucracy of being corrupt.

All three belong to the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC). Jehanzeb Khan Aurakzai was Director General Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP) before he went on two-year leave in September; Dr Asad Hafeez, filled the DG post he vacated, beside two others that he held; and Dr Ahmad Nadeem Akbar, the sidelined registrar of the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC).

Sources in the ministry told Dawn that Mr Aurakzai went on long leave soon after the Supreme Court ordered the Federal Investigation Agency on August 8, 2014 to probe the allegation, aired in the PMDC, he obtained his Masters in Public Health degree from the Sarhad University by using unfair means.

His colleagues in the ministry found the phenomenal flow of money into his bank accounts during his two-year stay in the drug regulatory authority even more questionable.

They claimed that on August 26, 2013 he had Great Britain Pounds GBP103,989 in his account in a local branch of a foreign bank. On July 8, 2014 GBP 100,000 were deposited in cash in the account and the same amount again the next day. On July 18 GBP 200,010 were withdrawn in two transactions.

Four days later another GBP 98,000 were deposited in cash. On July 24, 2014 GBP100,000 were withdrawn and the next day GBP 2,000 flowed into his account.

Mr Aurakzai had a rupee account too in the same bank, which held only Rs2,182 on August 26, 2013. Within four days Rs16.1 million arrived into the account and another Rs4.49 million flowed into it in two transactions on September 27, 2013.

By August 2, 2014 Rs75.22 million had flowed into the account and Rs73.21 million been withdrawn from it, the sources said on the strength of bank data.

They said Mr Aurakzai had several other accounts in a Pakistani bank and a Gulf-based bank.

Speculation is that after taking two-year leave in September 2014, he either went to the United States on an academic scholarship or is under treatment in the United Kingdom.

Now Dr Asad Hafeez holds the position of DG DRAP he vacated - in addition to his own of DG NHSRC and Executive Director of the Health Services Academy.

Dr Hafeez spent six months in jail in the famous ephedrine case and is currently on bail. His name also appears on the exit control list, according to the ministry sources.

Former registrar of the PMDC Dr Ahmad Nadeem Akbar is the third officer of the NHSRC with a shady past, claimed the sources.

While the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is investigating him, along with others, since May 2013 for prima facie corrupt practices, he is said to be trying to be reappointed to his lost post of registrar.

Dr Akbar was suspended in January 2013 as the NAB investigated the PMDC for registering and extending recognition to sub-standard medical and dental colleges in the private sector, issuing bogus registration certificates to unqualified doctors and corruption in the construction and renovation of PMDC headquarters.

Though the Islamabad High Court restored him in his office, the competent authority removed him in September 2013 citing an internal inquiry into the alleged mess.

“Now he is using political and other connections to regain the position of PMDC registrar,” the sources alleged.

However, when the NHSRC consulted the Law Ministry advised otherwise in view of the bureaucratic entanglement in his case history.

Both Dr Akbar and Dr Raja Amjad Mahmood, occupying the office of the registrar on deputation, were assailed by Pakistan Medical Association in a writ petition in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench Judicial Department.

The LHC suspended the operation of notifications of NHSRC and the Establishment Division. However, the LHC lacked territorial jurisdiction in this case and the matter fell in the jurisdiction of IHC, pointed out the law ministry.

It appeared appropriate to the law ministry further that the orders of IHC in February and November 2013, be brought to the notice of the civil court to get a stay order issued in the case vacated as there is nothing on the file whether it was extended subsequently or not.

Federal Health Minister Sara Afzal Tarar, however, defended the three officers when contacted for comments.

“He is not guilty,” she said, rejecting the allegations against Mr Aurakzai.

And she described Dr Hafeez as the most honest and competent person in her ministry.

She explained that in the case of Dr Akbar the law ministry had to be consulted because it had been in the courts. “What about the other accused in the ephedrine case, the son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, and the minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin and the Secretary?” Ms Tarar counter questioned.

Press officer of her ministry, Sajad Shah, had just this to say about Mr Aurakzi: “It was his personal matter and I do not want to comment on it.”

As for Dr Hafeez, he said, “so far he has not been declared guilty.”

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2014

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