KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others on a petition of a junior staff member of the provincial health department against freezing his bank account.

The petitioner, Zahid Anwar, naib qasid in the health department, submitted that his bank account had been frozen by respondents as they said that a company was registered in his name and he was a tax defaulter.

He further submitted that the tax authorities had claimed that he had defaulted on tax of over Rs160 million, adding that he obtained bail from a Customs court after being booked by the authorities in a tax evasion case.

PMDC issued notices on medical school’s plea

Impleading the FBR, FIA and others as respondents, the petitioner argued that he was unaware of the company in question and maintained that instead of tracking and arresting the real culprits, the authorities concerned had booked him in a case and also frozen his bank account, in which he used to receive his salary.

A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar issued notices to the respondents with the direction to file comments by the next hearing.

Notices to PMDC

Meanwhile, the same bench again issued notices to the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) on the petitions of the Dow University of Health Sciences against the PMDC for barring its Dr Ishratul Ibad Institute of Oral Health Sciences from further admissions and delay in recognition of Dow Dental College.

DUHS, its oral health sciences institute and dental college had challenged the PMDC’s decision in which it stopped the dental college and institute of oral health science from taking future intake of admissions for 2018 session till recognition and rectifying the defects respectively.

The counsel for petitioners submitted that the PMDC had not issued order with regard to withdrawal of recognition of the college and institute so far and no comprehensive report of surprise inspection had been available with the PMDC questioning the deficiencies pointed out in the surprise visit report of the PMDC.

He further argued that petitioners can demonstrate the fulfilment of all the requirements to the PMDC inspection team but as per impugned letter the inspection shall be carried out after six months.

He submitted that process of admissions had been initiated and the NTS test would be held on Oct 28 and in case of stopping of admissions the PMDC would remove the name of Dr Ishratul Ibad Institute of Oral Health Sciences from merit list of colleges for new admissions.

The counsel submitted that petitioners had completed all the formalities with regard to completion of recognition process.

A federal law officer submitted that a letter to PMDC had been issued for filing the comments on the petition and the reply was awaited.

The division bench repeated notice to the PMDC through sessions court Islamabad and adjourned hearing till Nov 1.

The court in the meantime continued the interim order observing that petitioners may be allowed to join the admissions process but no admission of any new student shall be finalised by the petitioners which shall be subject to the final order of the court.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2018

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