KARACHI, Jan 11: The present executive director of the Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Tariq-uz-Zafar, a retired colonel, has said that the mental health institute has not been served the Sindh High Court order on the strength of which Dr S. Haroon Ahmed, accompanied by his associates, sought to enter the premises on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday at the IBS, Mr Zafar said that the Sindh High Court order quoted in the press vacating the stay order issued previously had not been served upon the IBS.
“On the afternoon of Friday, Dr Haroon, as well as his associates, gathered in the Sachal police station where he met a representative of the present management of the IBS in the presence of police officials. It was established by the police that no new valid document or order by the Sindh High Court had been issued in regard to any action to be taken on Jan 10. Dr Haroon was not accompanied by any bailiff or court official. The police, therefore, declined to intervene in the matter,” he claimed.
The IBS executive director alleged that acting on a premeditated plan, Dr Haroon and his friends tried to force their entry into the premises. “It is beyond me why such an eminent doctor has been issuing statements about a matter that is sub judice. Is he not afraid that contempt proceedings could be initiated against him? Dr A.Q. Khan, on the other hand, has made no statement. The current administration of the IBS, appointed by Mr Khan and mandated to run the institute till the issue is resolved by the Sindh High Court, has also refrained from speaking on the matter publicly. “I am speaking at a press conference now only because IBS patients are distressed and want to know what the exact state of affairs is.”
Mr Zafar claimed that the number of patients to the IBS had gone up. “During the time all these histrionics were going on at the main gate, the IBS had already attended 15 patients since the morning. Soon after Dr Haroon and his friends dispersed, 11 more patients, who had been obstructed by the unruly crowd at the gate, came to the mental healthinstitutel. Previously, patients’ turnout used to range between 15 and 20 patients.”
He recalled that in 1995 Dr Haroon and Dr Khan had teamed up to construct a psychiatry facility where patients would be given free treatment. “Dr Khan had agreed to make arrangements for the funds required, with the proviso that the institute should be named after him and he should be made the chairman of the board of governors. Dr Haroon agreed and, thus, a psychiatry hospital was constructed.”
Mr Zafar alleged that in August last year, Dr Khan had learnt that patients had been charged for treatment at the IBS. “The charges ranged between Rs200 and Rs400. Incensed, Dr Khan asked for the financial records of the institute. His consternation knew no bounds when he learnt that the financial records were not kept at the IBS but somewhere else. Dr Khan also had reason to believe that the IBS had been used as a platform for the activities of the Pakistan Association of Mental Health. That was why he removed the executive director and the administrator of the IBS.”
Mr Zafar said that the IBS was totally subservient to court orders and it would comply completely with the orders of the Sindh High Court.