PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday granted bail to chief drug analyst Khalid Khan arrested by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission on the charge of declaring ‘substandard’ anti-hepatitis vaccine procured by the government fit for use.

Justice Qaiser Rasheed and Justice Ikramullah Khan accepted the bail petition of the suspect after hearing arguments of his lawyers and the KPEC’s.

Waqar Ahmad, lawyer for the petitioner, said few years ago, the then chief justice of the high court had taken a suo moto notice of the procurement of the alleged substandard vaccine, Interferon, by the health department from a noted pharmaceutical firm.

He said several suspects were arrested in the case, including the then director general of health services, who were subsequently freed on bail by the court.

The lawyer said the case was assigned to the National Accountability Bureau by the high court.


Khalid Khan suspected of declaring substandard vaccine fit for use


He said the Supreme Court later ruled that the high court had no powers to take suo moto notice of any issue and therefore, the high court assigning the case to the NAB automatically stood cancelled.

The lawyer said his client was named a witness in the case by the NAB.

He said the KPEC later took interest in the case and arrested his client claiming he had tested the vaccine in question before their procurement.

The lawyer said several inquiries conducted in the case didn’t hold his client responsible for any wrongdoing.

He said as the prime accused in the case had been freed, his client was also entitled to release on bail.

STAY ORDER EXTENDED: Another high court bench on Wednesday extended its earlier order of stopping the NAB from arresting two serving and a former police officer in the high-profile case of alleged embezzlement of funds during the procurement of weapons for police in 2009-10.

Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Roohul Amin Khan Chamkani later adjourned the hearing into petitions filed by the said officers against issuance of their arrest warrants by the NAB last year, asking the bureau not to take suspects into custody.

Among the suspects are then Frontier Constabulary commandant Abdul Majeed Marwat, then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa additional IGP (operation) Abdul Latif Gandapur (now retired) and DIG at Central Police Office Sajid Ali Khan.

Their names were mentioned by the NAB in a reference filed with the accountability court but the court didn’t summon them for the framing of charges observing that their roles hadn’t been spelt out in the reference.

Abdul Samad Khan, Anwarul Haq and Khalid Mehmood, lawyers for the petitioners, said the superior courts had already declared that the trial court had the powers to summon the people named in the reference.

They said in light of a recent Supreme Court judgment, once the relevant court began trial in a reference, the NAB chairman had no authority to issue arrest warrants for a suspect and that the said power could only be exercised by the trial court in light of the evidence available on record.

In Nov 2014, the trial court dismissed a NAB application to summon petitioners and three other police officers to face proceedings. In June 2015, it again turned down the NAB’s plea for the same.

Currently, former provincial police officer Malik Naveed Khan and budget officer Jawed Khan face trial in the case after indictment.

Published in Dawn September 29th, 2016

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