PESHAWAR, April 3: The anti-corruption department on Wednesday arrested three persons, including director general health and the head of the Provincial Hepatitis Control Programme, for their involvement in purchase of substandard injections and vaccines worth Rs150 million.

Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan, DG health, was arrested from his office along with Dr Ghulam Subhani, chief of the Provincial Hepatitis Control Programme and superintendent Mubarak Shah, official sources said. According to them, the arrests were made after an inquiry conducted at the directives of the Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan a few months back found these officials guilty of purchasing low quality injections and vaccines.

Also, the PHC had, last month, directed the anti-corruption establishment to register criminal cases against all the responsible officials involved in alleged purchase of substandard HCV (hepatitis-C virus) curing injections and vaccines.

Early this month, the anti-corruption department had found that almost expired interferon injections and vaccines meant for hepatitis prevention were purchased. It also revealed that the department bought huge quantity of medicines despite the fact it hadn’t any mechanism to deliver it to patients. The department also lacked any storage facility for such a huge quantity of injections and vaccines.