Court Grants Physical Remand Of Accused In Medicine Corruption Case

ISLAMABAD, Dec 2 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 02nd Dec, 2016 ) : An Accountability Court (AC) of Islamabad Friday extended physical remand of nine accused including Additional Secretary Wafaqi Mohtasib Arshad Farooq and former secretary drug committee Dr.

Muhammad Ali in a mega drug corruption case. The AC Judge Muhammad Bashir heard the corruption case filed by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). During the proceeding, NAB official argued that the five accused had offered a plea bargain in the case.

He said the department had taken the bank accounts details of the accused and further investigation was under way. NAB appealed the court to grant further physical remand of the accused, which was accepted by the court.

The court adjourned hearing of the case till December 13.

It may be mentioned here that, 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, Saifur Rehman and Khalilur Rehman, directors of M/s Galaxy Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, Rizwan Umer and Muqtadir MA Javaid, directors of M/s Martin Dow Ltd were also included in the accused list.

The accused persons' wrongfully derived financial benefits by the eight pharmaceutical companies on the basis of price increase to the tune of Rs 1,078.08 million out of which an amount of Rs 400 million has already been recovered.