Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC) has set another example of nepotism by restoring its former registrar, Ahmed Nadeem Akbar, allegedly involved in mega corruption cases worth hundreds of millions of rupees.

Interestingly the PMDC issued a notification for restoration of Dr. Akbar on the same day when the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested him in another case of forgery and misconduct. The FIA produced the accused Dr. Ahmed Nadeem Akbar, in the court of Special Judge Central Malik Nazir, which had granted a four-day physical remand of former Registrar PMDC to the FIA for further investigation.

The FIA sources told this scribe that the other accused in the case were still out of bars and the department was trying to hold them.

As many as 19 FIRs of corruption, irregularities, embezzlement of funds in various schemes and misuse of powers were already registered against the former registrar Dr. Nadeem Akbar by the police, FIA and NAB in 2013.

Nadeem Akbar had been working on the post of PM&DC Registrar from 2007 to 2013. Cases were of corruption were registered against him in the PMDC building construction, irregularities in hiring new staff, and corruption in recognition of medical colleges. The investigation by the state departments were still continuing against Dr. Ahmed Nadeem Akbar in the above cases but the PMDC body had issued a notification to restore him.

When contacted, President PMDC, Dr. Shabeer Lehri, said though the former registrar had been restored but his salaries and allowances would be issued if he got the clearance from corruption charges. A person facing trail couldn’t be dismissed from service until he was proved guilty, he said, claiming that several employees facing charges of Section 302 or others were also working in government sectors.

He said on the recommendation of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the court directives the PMDC formed an independent inquiry committee to see the case of Mr. Akbar, which later recommended that his services be restored. He rejected the allegations of nepotism and favouritism in case of Dr. Ahmed Nadeem Akbar. He said he was not posted as registrar of the department.

The FIA was also trying to arrest the CEO of Shifa International Hospital Islamabad, Dr. Qazi Manzoor ul Haq and a senior doctor of the same hospital Dr Nasir ud-din Khokhar, after registering a first information report (FIR) of forgery and playing with the lives of patients against them.

According to the FIR, a patient namely Nadeem Akhtar, stated that he visited the Shifa International Hospital Islamabad on June 25, 2010, where the head of the Gastroenterology Department Dr. Nasir Khokhar, examined him and prescribed a certain medicine.

Due to the wrong prescription, the complainant suffered from brain atrophy and impotency. During enquiry, it transpired that Dr. Nasir Khokhar was neither a gastroenterologist nor a specialist of neurology, but he was fraudulently displaying himself as a gastroenterologist on his name plate.

The above doctor had registered with PMDC as MBBS doctor (Karachi University) and Diplomat of American Board (DAB) Internal Medicine while he has given a list of bogus degrees on his letter head including the Professor of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, DAB Quality Medicine and Fellow American College of Gastroenterology etc.

The PMDC later issued a warning notice to the above doctor for the wrong medicine prescription to the complainant and later also cancelled his experience certificate that was issued with the connivance of the then Registrar PMDC Dr Ahmed Nadeem Akbar and former Assistant Registrar Muhammad Bashir.

This certificate was allegedly issued by way of wrong calculation of relevant experience period and PMDC’s disciplinary committee recommended penal action against the officials involved in issuing the fake certificate.

The CEO of Shifa International Hospital, Dr. Qazi Manzoor ul Haq Qazi, allowed Dr. Nasir Khokhar to continue practice as gastroenterologist in their hospital despite knowing the facts about his non- qualification and the cancellation of his experience certificate.

According to the role of the other accused including Ex-member Managing Committee PMDC, Dr Abid Farooqi, Federal Drug Inspector Fakhruddin Amir, Chief Pharmacist Shifa Hospital Shafqat Ali, suppliers of medicine Shahzad, Ijaz Mehmood, Shahzad Shaukat and other unknown private persons and PMDC officials was also held accountable.