Daily Times

A retired army officer on Monday challenged the return of his constitutional petition by the Supreme Court’s registrar office against a former army chief over his alleged involvement in a medical scam.

A petition seeking directions to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to initiate criminal proceedings against former army chief General (r) Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani for his alleged involvement in manufacturing and supplying spurious and substandard medicines to the pharmacies of military hospitals across the country, was filed by Col (r) Inamul Raheem under Article 184 (3) of the constitution.

The petition, however, was returned back by the Supreme Court registrar objecting that the petitioner had not approached any other appropriate forum available to him under the law for the same relief, adding that he had not provided any justification for not doing so. It also objected that the same petition was also pending before Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC), thus it could not be entertained.

In his appeal against the registrar’s decision, the applicant contended that the matter could not be decided by the LHC for three years as nobody appeared on behalf of the defence ministry, besides no reply was furnished in the high court.

He contended that the process of initiating proceedings by NAB against military officials was very slow, adding that a complaint filed against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf in 2013 on the charges of corruption was taken up after almost five years. “The concept of the establishment existing as a state within a state has become an obstacle, as now it has emerged as an empire within a metropolitan,” the applicant maintained.

He stated that the matter is very sensitive as spurious and substandard medicine has been manufactured and supplied in 27 military hospitals as well as in the open market.

The provision of spurious medicine is a heinous, continuous and perpetual offence being committed by the respondent against own troops and there is no institution available in the country with can effectively check their activity other than the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the applicant claimed, and requested the court to remove the objections raised by the registrar and hear the petition in the best interest of public at large.

Published in Daily Times, May 1^st 2018.