PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday stopped the National Accountability Bureau from arresting a leading pharmaceutical firm’s national sales manager in a case of the supply of substandard anti-hepatitis–C vaccines to the provincial health department and other irregularities in that regard.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Irshad Qaisar directed the NAB Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to file comments within 10 days in the petition filed by Mohammad Khalid Malik, of Pharmedics Laboratories (Private) Limited.

It put off the hearing until Nov 18 and observed the petition would be heard along with other identical petitions filed by three other suspects in the case.

Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client had been given a call-up notice by the NAB asking him to turn up at its regional headquarters.

Khalid Malik faces charge of supplying health dept substandard vaccines

He added that there were apprehensions that his client might be arrested by the bureau.

The lawyer said in 2013, the then PHC chief justice had taken a suo motu notice of the supply of vaccines to the provincial government by Pharmedics Laboratories (Private) Limited and had ordered the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to conduct an inquiry in that regard.

Ghulam Mohiuddin said an FIR was later registered on the basis of the inquiry.

He said the high court’s order was challenged in the Supreme Court, which set it aside observing that the high court’s chief justice had no constitutional power to take suo moto notice of an issue.

The lawyer however said in the meantime, the high court had issued directives to the NAB to take over the case from the ACE following which the NAB had begun inquiry into it despite the apex court’s judgment.

He said once the Supreme Court had set aside the order of the high court, the NAB had no authority to investigate the issue.

The chief justice asked whether after the apex court’s order, the matter had ended.

The lawyer said the NAB had subsequently issued ‘call-up’ notices to different people, including present petitioner, and that happened in line with the said suo moto notice.

He requested the bench to suspend the impugned call-up notice till final disposal of the petition, wherein the petitioner had requested the court to quash the proceedings started by the NAB.

The lawyer pointed out that in almost identical petitions, the court had stopped the NAB from taking action against then director general (health services) Dr Shareef, medical superintendent of Maulvi Jee Hospital Dr Mohammad Ali Chohan, and owner of the said pharmaceutical firm Sheikh Iftikhar.

In Feb 2013, the then PHC chief justice, Dost Mohammad Khan, had taken a suo motu notice of the supply of substandard interferon injections used for treatment of hepatitis-C in government hospitals.

Later, four officials, including Dr Sharif and Dr Chohan, were arrested. They were however freed after the Supreme Court granted them bail.

According to the inquiry report, the vaccines purchased by the government had expired in May 2013.

“A total of 1,906,229 interferon injections were purchased under the annual development programmes of 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12. As per stock register entries, 1,133,998 vials were issued by the project director to various districts, whereas the remaining 772,002 were missing,” it said.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2015

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