IHC Rejects Bail Plea Of Accused In Drug Corruption Case

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Nov, 2016 ) : Islamabad High Court (IHC) Thursday rejected a pre-arrest bail plea of an Additional Secretary Wafaqi Mohtasib in mega corruption drug case.

A divisional bench of IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui and Justice Mohsan Akhtar Kiani heard the suit of former head of Drug Regulatory Authority Arshad Farooq Faheem. The prosecutor of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Sardar Muzafar Abbasi argued before the court that the petitioner was a central accused in corruption scandal.

He said the accused as chief executive of Drug Regulatory Authority illegally permitted the drugs manufacturing companies to increase prices of medicine that cause extra burden on the pocket of downtrodden.

The medicine companies had earned billions of rupees illegally due to this move, he said. He informed the court that about Rs 400 millions had been recovered from the already arrested eight accused in the case.

After hearing the arguments, the court rejected the bail plea of Arshad Farooq Faheem.

The accused person gave wrongful financial benefits to the eight pharmaceutical firms in the shape of illegal price increase of their drugs causing loss to the public at large to the tune of about Rs 1078.08 million.

It may be mentioned here that in the same case , NAB has already arrested eight accused persons namely Dr. Muhammad Ali (The Then Secretary cum Member Drugs Pricing Committee), Ex member pricing (BPS-21) DRAP, Ahsan Feroze, Director of M/s Maple Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Arif Aziz Akhai, proprietor M/s Akhai Agencies, Amir Saddique, Director of Excel Health Care Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Saif-ur-Rehman & Khalil-ur-Rehman, Directors of M/s Galaxy Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, Rizwan Umer & Muqtadir M.

A. Javaid, Directors of M/s Martin Dow Ltd. They were produced before the Judge Accountability Court, Islamabad on November 22, where physical remand has been granted to NAB for investigation.