PESHAWAR: A local court here on Wednesday granted interim pre-arrest bail to a former director general health services and stopped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) from arresting him in a case related to certain irregularities in Timergara Medical College, Dir Lower project, of which he was project director.

The additional sessions judge, Liaqat Ali, sought reply and record from ACE and fixed June 23 for next hearing of the pre-arrest bail plea of former DG health Dr Shaukat Ali.

Advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client had served against different posts and had also remained DG health services. He said that his client was serving as Dir Lower district health officer (DHO) in 2016 when he was also assigned the responsibility of project director of TMC.

He stated that significant development was made towards completion of the project after he had taken over the charge of project director and due to his exemplary performance he was also entrusted with additional charge of chief executive officer of the college in 2022.

The counsel claimed that on political grounds multiple inquiries and investigations were started against the petitioner in relation to different issues. He stated that the petitioner had already approached Peshawar High Court challenging different inquiries by ACE and the court had issued restraining orders in his favour.

However, he said that to frustrate the orders of the high court, the petitioner came to know that ACE had registered a fresh case against him and two other doctors, wherein it was alleged that the said two doctors had been appointed in Timergara Medical College (TMC), but they had also been serving in another place and were drawing double salaries.

He said that in connection with that around a decade-old matter, the officials of ACE had conducted raids on the residences of petitioner in Peshawar and Timergara to arrest him.

Mr Yousafzai contended that the petitioner had neither been provided a copy of the FIR nor any relevant information by ACE. He pointed out that earlier ACE had started inquiry against the petitioner regarding different components of TMC.

He said that health department and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had already conducted inquiries into the matter and had found nothing objectionable in the project and conducting a fresh inquiry by ACE was illegal and unconstitutional.

He said that after careful consideration of evidence and facts, the inquiry started by NAB was formally closed on Aug 8, 2024. He claimed that the petitioner had been victimised as he had declined to support influential mafia, involved in provision of substandard drugs, in awarding it a contract of provisions of medicines.

He said that some local MPAs were also against the petitioner as he had turned down certain of their illegal demands.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2025