PESHAWAR: A special accountability court here on Friday remanded a suspect into the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for seven days in a reference involving alleged corruption and irregularities in procurement at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department’s Medicine Coordination Cell.
The order was issued by Judge Muhammad Hamid Mughal during a hearing of a reference related to alleged embezzlement, misuse of public funds and irregularities in the procurement of medicines and medical equipment.
During the proceedings, NAB Special Prosecutor Habibullah Baig and the investigating officer appeared before the court, while the suspect, Kamran Anjum, was produced under tight security.
The prosecutor told the court that the suspect owns two private pharmaceutical companies and was arrested after Accountability Court No. 3 rejected his pre-arrest bail application. He alleged that the suspect had secured supply orders worth more than Rs1 billion.
According to the prosecution, the suspect submitted fake delivery challans and was involved in alleged irregularities in the supply of medicines and medical equipment. NAB further alleged that examination gloves worth Rs983.5 million were either not supplied or supplied in quantities lower than those specified in the contracts, causing an estimated loss of more than Rs1.345 billion to the national exchequer.
The investigating officer informed the court that the investigation was still in progress and that additional evidence and official records were yet to be recovered, necessitating further physical remand.
After hearing the arguments, the court granted NAB a seven-day physical remand of the suspect and directed the bureau to produce him at the next hearing. The court also instructed NAB officials to ensure the suspect undergoes a medical examination during the remand period.The allegations against the suspect have yet to be proven in court, and no defence arguments were presented during the hearing.
