Dangerous drug inspectors

Pharmaceuticals — drugs for prescription primarily — are big business. There are rows of drug stores adjacent to medical facilities large and small and pharmacies may be found even in the most remote spots. All these drug outlets sell goods that have a published shelf life — it says on the box when the batch was manufactured and an expiry date — and in theory this is policed and regulated by drug inspectors with the job of making sure that the public that consume these products are protected from fraud and safe. In theory.

An intelligence report by the police special branch in Punjab reveals that all is far from well. Specifically, 64 out of 121 drug inspectors are alleged to be involved in corruption, and not small-time either. There has recently been criticism from patients about poor services from pharmacies and the non-availability of quality medicines in the marketplace.

Those criticisms are well founded. Corruption is widespread across the province. The report finds that fake and expired medicines are widely available and that drug inspectors were taking bribes that could be as little as Rs1,000 per month but up to Rs50,000 at the upper end. Quacks bribed the inspectors to allow the continuation of their trade. Inspectors collected ‘samples’ of expensive drugs only to sell them on.

It is rare to be able to hand a plaudit to the police but in this instance it is merited. The work done by the special branch has revealed an invidious culture of corruption that is well established and carries a significant danger to public health. Even where corruption is reported to a higher authority as in Chakwal and the man was posted to Mianwali — and carried on his corrupt practices as before. The report suggests that corruption is so widespread throughout the entire cohort of inspectors that a root-and-branch cull is necessary. These men and those that support and protect them are a significant danger to the public at large and need to be stopped and taken out of circulation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2017.

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