Sindh High Court (SHC) division bench comprising Justice Sadiq Hussain Bhatti and Justice Hassan Feroze has directed the chief secretary to preserve the record of procurement of hepatitis B and C medicines for the year 2014-15 to thwart any attempt to temper or destroy the record.
According to the details, the government of Sindh had floated a tender for the procurement of Hepatitis B and C medicine for the year 2014-15 on Nov 28, 2014. Subsequently, the tender was granted to two multinational pharmaceutical companies which was challenged by the local companies terming it discrimination.
The SHC on March 26, 2015, declared the tender process as non-transparent, illegal and unconstitutional and also held that tender granted to the multinational pharmaceuticals companies was at exorbitant prices.
Despite the court orders, the Sindh government failed to initiate departmental action and criminal proceedings against the officials of the procurement agency for conducting a non-transparent and illegal tender.
Reluctance of Sindh government to punish the wrongdoers prompted Getz Pharma to file a constitutional petition before the SHC through Faisal Siddiqui Advocate seeking directions for NAB to take action against the officials involved in the hepatitis scam.
Faisal Siddiqui argued that health authorities had deceived the government and misused public money for personal welfare. The record of procurement should not be in their possession as it could be tempered or destroyed anytime to hide corruption worth Rs 250 million.
ADPG NAB M Altaf, AAG M Rafiq Rajori, and DAG Ainuddin Khan represented the provincial government and NAB sought time to file comments, therefore, the case was adjourned till July15 for further proceedings.
The petitioner seeks action against Dr Kazim Raza Memon, former program manager, Prevention and Control of Hepatitis, Sindh, Khalid Hussain Shaikh, Special Secretary (Public Health), Dr Sabir Memon, Additional Secretary, Dr Badar Faiyaz Zuberi, member of technical committee for evaluation of technical bids, Dr Bikha Ram Daverajani, member of technical committee for evaluation of technical bids, Muhammad Arshad Awan, distributor for multinational companies, Roche Pakistan Limited and Schering Plough Pakistan Limited.