PHC bails out EPI deputy director, storekeeper

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued the release order of Deputy Director of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Dr Janbaz Afridi and storekeeper Zahid Ali who had been charged with misappropriation of funds at the Directorate of Health Services. A two-member bench comprising of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ms Musarrat Hilali issued the release order and directed them to submit Rs10 million bond each.
The Ehtesab Commission Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had arrested the EPI Deputy Director Dr Janbaz Afridi and storekeeper Zahid Ali on June 18 on charges of misappropriating funds.The petitioners’ lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi argued that judicial remand of his clients was unlawful as no legal cover had been given to the judicial custody of the accused in the KP Ehtesab Commission Act.
The Ehtesab Commission prosecutor stated that Dr Janbaz Afridi was accused of misappropriating millions of rupees allocated for the EPI programme. He stated that Zahid Ali acquired different contracts from the office of the Health Services Director General for a fake firm Adil Enterprises and embezzled millions of rupees.
The prosecutor referred to the judgment of Lahore High Court in 2003 that ruled that provisions of Criminal Procedure Code were automatically applicable to special laws. He argued that the Ehtesab Commission Act was also special law and thus legal cover had been provided for judicial custody of the accused under the act through the court’s order.