Former KP health DG arrested after bail rejection in drug procurement case

PESHAWAR: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested former director general health services Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Shaukat Ali, on Wednesday after an accountability court rejected his pre-arrest bail plea in a multi-billion-rupee case linked to the procurement of medicines and surgical equipment.

Accountability Court Judge Zafar Khan announced the order after hearing arguments from both sides and recalled the interim bail that had earlier been granted to the accused. A detailed order is to be issued later. Following the ruling, NAB officials took Dr Shaukat into custody.

NAB is expected to produce him before the accountability court on Thursday to seek his physical remand.

NAB had launched an inquiry a few months ago into the widely discussed procurement case, in which Dr Shaukat and several other health department officials have been accused of serious violations of procurement procedures during the last caretaker government in the province.

The initial NAB probe, along with an earlier inquiry by the provincial government, stated that embezzlement or loss to the public exchequer had been established in the purchase of medicines, surgical equipment and other items worth Rs4.4 billion. The petitioner's role has been described by investigators as central to the case.

Arguments before the court

Lawyers for Dr Shaukat argued that he had been wrongly portrayed as the main figure in the alleged irregularities. They told the court that the accusations had no factual basis and rested on hearsay. They also referred to previous inquiries by the KP government, saying those committees had not found evidence of embezzlement or corruption in the procurement process.

The defence further argued that Dr Shaukat had fully cooperated with the investigation and, under the National Accountability Ordinance, arrest could only be justified if an accused was interfering with the investigation or there were fears that he might abscond.

NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Mohammad Ali, however, told the court that there was incontrovertible evidence linking the accused to the alleged offence. He argued that Dr Shaukat had allegedly embezzled funds during his tenure as director general health services while procuring medicines and surgical items for several hospitals and health facilities. He said while billions of rupees were withdrawn under the guise of procurement, the supplies were non-existent on the ground.

The prosecutor alleged that Dr Shaukat had served as chairman of the selection and rate committee and had headed the procurement process from start to finish. He claimed that payments amounting to Rs3.17 billion were made without physical inspection of the procured stock and goods. He further said that most of the payments were released without obtaining a standard test report from the Drug Testing Laboratory, which he described as an essential requirement before processing bills.

Earlier provincial inquiry

The pre-arrest bail petition of another accused, Dr Irshad Ali, a former district health officer in Lower Dir who had also been given additional charge of director public health, remains pending before the same court and is expected to be decided in the coming days.

Before NAB took up the matter, the provincial government in 2024 had formed a committee to examine allegations of misappropriation in medicine procurement during the last caretaker government. The committee was headed by retired Brigadier Musaddiq Abbasi, adviser to the then chief minister on anti-corruption, and also included the additional chief secretary as well as the establishment and finance secretaries.

After completing its work, the committee sent its report to then chief minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur and recommended disciplinary action against Dr Shaukat Ali and several other health department officials.

According to that inquiry report, Dr Shaukat had placed orders worth Rs4.44 billion with different firms for medicines without first obtaining demand from hospitals, resulting in unnecessary procurement. That, ordinarily, purchases were made only after hospitals submitted their demand lists. It also stated that records showed medicines worth around Rs800 million were lying in the main store, while suppliers had been paid Rs3.17 billion.