RAWALPINDI, Oct 27: Justice Mazhar Ali Akbar Naqvi of the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench here on Thursday suspended the sentence of Dr. Khalid Iqbal Malik and seven other persons granting them bail.

Khalid Iqbal Malik the former medical superintendent (MS) of district headquarter (DHQ) hospital and seven others were convicted and sentenced for five years imprisonment for recruiting four persons as doctors with fake MBBS degrees.

Besides Dr Khalid Iqbal Malik the bail was granted to Syed Salahuddin, Syed Naseeruddin, Syed Allauddin – the three brothers having fake MBBS degrees – former assistant Registrar Pakistan Medical Dental Council (PMDC) Muhammad Bashir, former nurse Riffat Shaheen, former head clerk of the DHQ Muhammad Irfan and former accountant of the hospital Asif Ayub against surety bonds of Rs100, 000 each.

It is pertinent to mention that media had unearthed the appointments of four fake doctors at the hospital in October 2009. An anti-corruption court on September 10 this year awarded five-year imprisonment to the former medical superintendent of the hospital and four other persons. According to the verdict announced by Special Judge Malik Nazeer Ahmed, Khalid Iqbal Malik, Allauddin, Salahuddin, Naseeruddin, and Irfan were sentenced five years in jail. Asif Ayub was given four-year term while Riffat Shaheen was sentenced three-year imprisonment.

Their lawyer however, argued before the court that his clients had already spent a major portion of the sentence behind the bars since their arrest in October 2009 so they should be released on bail after suspending their sentence. The court accepted the plea.