Pakistani Minister
Wanted in US on Sexual Misconduct Charge, Sued for Millions
By
Afshan Tabassum in Nebraska & H. Khalid in Islamabad
Special to the South Asia Tribune
FREMONT,
Nebraska/ISLAMABAD: The Health Minister of General Pervez Musharraf's
main supporting political party PML-Q in the largest Pakistani
province of Punjab, a medical doctor from Narowal, is wanted in
Nebraska on criminal charges of sexual misconduct and causing
the largest known Hepatitis-C outbreak in the United States.
Now
Punjab Health Minister, Dr. Tahir A. Javed contested the October
elections on PML-Q ticket from Narowal-II after he fled the US
on July 13, 2002. He has so far been formally accused by the State
of Nebraska for unprecedented negligence and misconduct.
Interestingly
with a collapsed medical career in US where he was almost declared
a fugitive, Dr. Javed was found fit by his in-laws, who are senior
officers in the Pakistan Army, to enter politics and he was asked
to contest for a Punjab Assembly seat on the pro-Army PML-Q ticket.
In
Islamabad, sources close to the PML-Q high-ups, the Chaudhry Brothers
of Gujrat, say Dr. Javed’s father in law, a retired Brigadier
and one of his cousins, a serving Lieutenant General, Mohammed
Akram, now posted in the MS Branch which oversees all postings
and transfers in the Army, promoted Dr. Javed to get into politics
and later be named as a minister.
Lt.
General Akram was number two in the infamous Inter Services Intelligence
(ISI) when the October 2002 elections were held and in that position
he was the political king-maker, taking all the decisions on who
would be allowed to contest the polls on PML-Q and even other
party tickets and who will eventually win. It was within his total
discretion to put his discredited nephew on a winning seat in
the heartland of Punjab. Thus Dr. Javed entered politics.
After
entering the provincial assembly, again using his ISI and Army
connections, Dr. Javed pushed himself upstairs and was inducted
into the cabinet of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi as the Health
Minister on January 3, 2003. Click
to View Dawn Report
Dr.
Javed faces scores of allegations in a petition filed by Special
Assistant Attorney General Roger Brink for disciplinary action
filed against him. Health investigators have linked poor infection-control
practices at Javed's former cancer clinic in Fremont, to 99 cases
of Hepatitis-C diagnosed over the past two years. One patient
has died. The petition outlines 12 reasons for discipline or revocation
of Javed's Nebraska medical license. Click
to View Nebraska State Announcement
The
investigation of Dr. Javed, the announcement said, has taken more
than 550 hours of staff time in the Department of Regulation and
Licensure. To support their case, investigators have documented
nearly 1,000 pages of interviews with physicians, nurses, pharmacists,
laboratory personnel, patients and patients’ families. The
investigation included an intensive review of hospital and clinic
records and required the creation of a database to track the appointments
of each patient from 1998 to mid 2002.
But
the most serious charge is of sexual misconduct. Javed is accused
of an improper sexual relationship with a patient. He allegedly
falsely told the patient she had a terminal illness and impersonated
at least two other physicians to obtain or interfere with her
test results.
"The
conduct in this petition is unprecedented in our memory,"
said Richard Nelson, Director of Regulation and Licensure for
the Nebraska Health and Human Services System.
Nelson
said state officials have had no direct contact with Javed. Nelson
said they are trying to serve Javed notice of the petition and
set a hearing date, after which the state's chief medical officer
will decide whether and how to discipline him. That could take
several weeks, Nelson said.
Attorneys
representing the victims of Javed told the South Asia Tribune
they had served a notice to Javed to appear in the case which
is going full blast with the State of Nebraska pushing the charges.
"We are at the discovery stage and all systems are go,"
one attorney in Fremont, Nebraska said.
According
to the petition:
•
Javed was repeatedly informed - as early as November 1999, months
before the first known hepatitis-infected patient came to the
clinic for treatment – that his nurses were reusing syringes
used to draw blood and saline. Although the practice put his patients
at risk for blood-borne diseases, he allowed the practice to persist.
•
Javed left for Pakistan July 13, 2002 - two days after another
Fremont doctor informed Javed that four of his patients had the
same strain of hepatitis. As he left the country, Javed mailed
patients a letter saying that he had to tend to a family emergency
and that two other doctors would be taking care of them. But Javed
had not arranged anything with those doctors, including one who
was not scheduled to begin work at the clinic for another month.
•
Javed had an improper sexual relationship with a patient. He falsely
told the patient she had a terminal illness and impersonated at
least two other physicians to obtain or interfere with her test
results.
Javed
could not be reached as all calls made by the South Asia Tribune
to his telephone numbers listed in the Punjab Cabinet List went
unattended. Click to View the list with
his address and phone numbers
Two
of his Nebraska attorneys had earlier declined to comment to local
newspapers on the petition or the allegations in it.
"I
think it's inappropriate to comment to the press on this matter,"
said Mark Christensen, a Lincoln attorney representing Javed in
civil suits filed by his former patients. "I think that there's
been too much coverage already. It has or will make it impossible
for Dr. Javed to have a fair trial in Dodge County."
Jim
Davis, a Fremont attorney representing about 20 of the nearly
80 patients who have sued Javed, said many doubt he will return
to Nebraska. But he said the state action is still important.
Sources
said the defence case of Javed was being contested by his medical
insurance company.
Legal
experts in Nebraska said Javed could be asked by the US Government
to be extradited to Nebraska in the criminal case involving sexual
misconduct with a patient but this decision would be taken by
the Nebraska Governor’s office.
Local
Nebraska newspapers said Javed also may face criminal charges.
The FBI and the Food and Drug Administration, which would have
jurisdiction over such a case, are known to have investigated
the outbreak, but neither office could be reached for comment.
Venita
Wotipka, a 55-year-old Wahoo woman who was infected and who has
filed a lawsuit against the clinic, said Javed could have spared
people a lot of grief if the issue had been dealt with the right
away.
"It
is really devastating to know that we as cancer patients could
have been spared this added burden of another life-threatening
disease," she said. "It's too bad that someone didn't
step up and do what was right."
According
to local newspapers, which are following the Javed case vigorously,
a "For Sale" sign has come up on the unkempt lawn of
his northwest Omaha home. An orange trailer sits in the driveway
and moving boxes were visible through the glass front door.
A
woman who answered the door when a local reporter rang the bell
said she was not related to the accused doctor.
Javed's
house is listed as "new listing" with "immediate
occupancy" on CBS Home Real Estate's Web site, with a $389,900
asking price.
