ISLAMABAD – Rawalpindi’s Special Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) ordered immediate restoration of bank accounts belonging to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Namal University, after they were erroneously frozen under the name of Aleema Khan.
It stemmed to court proceeding when non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for Aleema Khan due to her failure to appear. Along with that, the court ordered all bank accounts registered in her name to be frozen.
During the hearing, the hospital’s lawyers and the prosecution appeared before Judge Amjad Ali Shah. Prosecutor Zahir Shah stunned the courtroom by revealing “We never requested the freezing of Shaukat Khanum or Namal University’s accounts.”
He explained that Aleema Khan’s CNIC number was sent to the State Bank, and commercial banks, while searching for accounts linked to that CNIC, accidentally froze the hospital and university accounts as well.
In petition filed by Shaukat Khanum Hospital, the situation was described as alarming saying medicines for cancer patients were stuck at the port and payments could not be processed due to frozen accounts. It mentioned patients’ lives were placed at serious risk.
The petition declared that the court’s original order had been misinterpreted, leading to the wrongful freezing of accounts belonging to critical public-service institutions.
Prosecutor Zahir Shah told the court he had no objection to restoring the hospital and university accounts, but requested that Aleema Khan’s business accounts remain frozen. After hearing all arguments, the court issued a decisive order, Shaukat Khanum Hospital and Namal University accounts must be restored immediately.
