PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) on Monday arrested a senior drug analyst on charges of giving wrong report about life-saving drugs worth millions of rupees a few years ago.

In a statement issued here, the commission said senior government drug analyst Khalid Khan was arrested during a raid at the provincial drug testing laboratory. It was stated that the provincial health department had purchased interferon injections for free treatment of hepatitis patients but the laboratory in-charge had wrongly described the medicines as fake and substandard.

It was stated that the re-testing of the medicines was based on mala-fide intentions. However, the commission through its thorough investigation described the analyst’s report as baseless, which had caused loss of millions of rupees to the provincial kitty.

The accused person will be presented to accountability court today (Tuesday) for seeking his custody for further interrogation.

When contacted, another official told Dawn that a big consignment of interferon injection had been purchased for free treatment of hepatitis patients but the analyst’s report had kept the needy people deprived of the facility.

However, he said it was yet to be ascertained if the medicines had been disposed of.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016