MULTAN, Jan 20: A health official convicted of issuing a wrong medico-legal certificate a year ago is still at large while members of the medical board that assisted the Lahore High Court face removal from service notices.
Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi, deputy surgeon medico-legal, along with Dr Afzal, a medical officer, was sentenced to imprisonment by the LHC. Their sentence was later upheld, though reduced, by the Supreme Court.
The convicts had tried to bail out police in an illegal detention and torture case. The story started when a bailiff recovered Nadeem Iqbal from the illegal custody of Sambrial police on Dec 12, 2000, under the orders of Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif who heard a habeas corpus petition (filed by an uncle of the victim).
After going through the bailiff report and seeing Nadeem Iqbal himself, who was not even in a position to stand on his feet, the judge sent him to the office of the surgeon medico-legal, Punjab, for examination.
Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi and Dr Afzal, however, stated in their report that there was no recent mark of physical torture on Iqbal’s body.
The petitioner challenged the report and sought the constitution of a medical board. “The doctors at the surgeon medico-legal office even did not bother to take off the clothes of the victim to examine him physically,” the petitioner alleged.
On the court directive, Dr Zahid Pervez, then Mayo Hospital MS, constituted a board comprising Dr Sadaqat A Khan, associate professor of surgery, Mayo, Dr Saeed Ahmed Malik, assistant professor, forensic medicine, King Edward Medical College, Dr Muhammad Naeem, assistant professor of neurology, Mayo, and Dr Abdul Hameed Rana, additional medical superintendent, Mayo.
The board examined the victim and reported that there were five marks on his body caused by a blunt weapon. The accused told the court that the board members had personal enmity with them and that they even did not know the basics of medical jurisprudence. Though, there were some forensic experts on the board, the court directed the then health secretary to constitute another board for the re-examination of the victim.
The second board comprised Dr M Ather, then chief chemical examiner, Dr Shahid Hanif, head of the forensic medicine department, Allama Iqbal Medical College, Dr Pervez A Rana, head of the forensic medicine department, KEMC, and Dr Zainab Parveen, assistant professor of forensic medicine, Fatima Jinnah Medical College.
The second board confirmed the findings of the first board. Consequently, the officials were sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 each under sections 192, 193, 197, 201, 219 and 266 (read with section 109) PPC.
The convicts moved the Supreme Court through criminal appeals 6 & 7 of 2001, against their conviction. But, the apex court upheld their conviction and dismissed their appeals on May 14, 2001, observing: “The object of awarding punishment to a person is two-fold, first he (or she) be punished for violating the law and, secondly, as a deterrence for the like-minded persons who, without caring about the consequences, do wrongs.”
However, the apex court reduced the quantum of sentence to one year RI and a fine of Rs 10,000 each keeping in view that both the appellants belonged to an educated class of the society. The convicts filed a review petition which was also dismissed by the apex court on June 13, 2001.
Following the SC verdict, the trial court directed the district magistrate, Lahore, under letter No.16693 (dated: June 18, 2001) to ensure the arrest of the convicts. The DM, under letter No. 13302 (dated: June 27, 2001), directed the Lahore SSP to arrest the convicts and send them to jail.
But, ironically, none of the convicts has so far been arrested. Instead, they are drawing salaries from the exchequer. In the meanwhile, convict Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi’s brother Hasan Waseem Afzal took charge of the office of the Punjab health secretary and things started changing.
Dr Zainab Parveen of the second medical board claimed through an affidavit that she was pressurized by other members of the board to sign a wrong medico-legal certificate. The affidavit was not produced during the hearing in the trial court till the decision of the case. It is learnt that the apex court also refused to entertain the affidavit.
However, the secretary constituted a committee on July 16, 2001, to look into the affidavit under the chairmanship of the then surgeon medico-legal, Dr Arshad Awan. Dr Awan, interestingly, appeared before the trial court as the defence witness (DW 1) in the case in which Dr Nadeem Afzal Ashrafi was convicted.
The committee did not call any member of the second board except Dr Zainab. But, as the case had been decided by the court, ‘masterminds’ in the health department thought it better to avoid legal complications and instead penalize the “disobedient” members of the second board. All the three other members of the second board have been issued notices under the removal from service ordinance, 2000. It may be pertinent to mention here that the second board only confirmed the findings of the first board.
To show transparency in what is seemed ‘supra-judicial’ proceedings, the secretary assigned the inquiry against the three members of the second board to labour secretary Zahoorul Haq Sheikh, who is said to be a relative of the sitting health minister. However, the officer reportedly halted (inquiry) proceedings when the charge-sheeted members informed him in their replies that the proceedings were in defiance of the articles 187, 189 and 190 of the constitution which attached doctrine of finality to the decisions of the apex court and that no one has any authority whatsoever to disobey, whittle it down or to conduct any stratagem to defeat the decisions of the apex court.
A number of senior health department officials have meanwhile expressed concern over the situation and said the three members of the board who enjoyed very good reputation in the profession were being victimized against the whims of a bureaucrat.