ISLAMABAD: (APP) National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi on Thursday arrested Arshad Farooq Faheem, (Additional Secretary Wapaqi Mohtasib Secretariat) in mega corruption drug case.
The accused person (the then Chairman Drugs Pricing Committee, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had given wrongful financial benefits to eight pharmaceutical companies/firms in shape of illegal price increase of their drugs, causing loss to public at large to tune of Rs 1078.08 million out of which an amount of Rs 400 million has already been recovered.
In the same case, NAB has already arrested eight accused namely Dr. Muhammad Ali (the then Secretary cum Member Drugs Pricing Committee), Ex-member pricing (BPS-21) DRAP, Ahsan Feroze, Director of M/s Maple Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd, Arif Aziz Akhai, proprietor M/s Akhai Agencies, Amir Saddique, Director of Excel Health Care Laboratories (Pvt) Ltd, Saif-ur-Rehman & Khalil-ur-Rehman, Directors of M/s Galaxy Pharma (Pvt) Ltd, Rizwan Umer & Muqtadir M.A. Javaid, Directors of M/s Martin Dow Ltd.
They were produced before Judge Accountability Court, Islamabad on November 22 where 10 days physical remand has been granted to NAB for investigation.
As per investigation report, NAB Rawalpindi submitted in court that the members of Drug Pricing Committee in connivance with beneficiary Pharma companies/firms extended undue financial benefits in shape of illegal and unjustified price increase of their drugs through DPC meeting held on October 09, 2012 & January 22, 2013 and sub-committee meeting held on November 19, 2012.
The wrongful financial benefits derived by the eight pharmaceutical companies/firms on basis of price increase through above said meetings comes to be Rs. 1078.08 M approximately till June 30, 2015.
This illegal benefit is perpetually being gained by the pharmaceutical companies/firms which submitted inflated invoices/ incorrect/incomplete costing data and were selling of their drugs on prices which were illegally increased by members of DPC.
During the process of Investigation, it was revealed that the pharmaceutical companies in connivance with accused officers/officials submitted incomplete/incorrect and inflated invoices to DRAP for fixation of drugs prices at exorbitant rates.
Due to illegal price hike in the DPC meetings and sub-committee meeting around Rs. 1078.08 million has been pocketed by these pharmaceutical companies, causing unbearable burden on general public.
In this case, two accused persons namely Tariq Haider and Mian Muhammad Khalid were arrested but released by the Accountability Court after payment of their liability of Rs. 385.12 million and Rs. 15 million from directors of M/s Saffron Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.
The Director General NAB Rawalpindi Attiq-ur-Rehman said NAB under leadership of Qamar Zaman Chaudhary, Chairman NAB was committed to eradicating corruption by adopting Zero Tolerance Policy across the board.
He appreciated Muhammad Saleem Ahmad Khan, Investigation Officer NAB Rawalpindi for putting extra efforts in nabbing these corrupts, thus bringing them behind bar in line with NAB's Enforcement Strategy.