LAHORE: Three pharmaceutical company owners, under interrogation by the Federal Investigation Agency for alleged involvement in the free medicines case, have been sent for an additional five-day physical remand.
In previous proceedings, a judicial magistrate had remanded the accused for three days in custody of the FIA and directed the agency’s officials to produce them before the court on January 27.
On Friday, the FIA produced accused Tahir Azam, Chaudhry Nadir and Muhammad Wasim in magistrate Irfan Basra’s court and sought eleven days of physical remand to investigate them.
Prosecution counsel told the court that a number of patients had died and hundreds of others were affected after using medicines supplied by these companies. The drugs, the counsel said, were substandard and manufacturing and expiry dates were not mentioned on them.
The counsel for the accused argued that his clients were being implicated because of vested interests and that the federal government had taken action against his clients in haste only to gain political mileage. There is no evidence against the companies, he said.
The magistrate, however, granted a five-day physical remand to the FIA.
The accused were arrested on Monday and booked under the Drug Act of 1976.
Court fixes Jan 30 in plea seeking FIR against PIC MS, health secy
An additional district and sessions court has fixed January 30 to hear a petition seeking registration of a case registered against Punjab Institute of Cardiology’s medical superintendent and the provincial health secretary.
Judge Arif Hameed Shaikh will hear the petition that blames the two officials for purchasing substandard medicine that has killed over 100 people in the province.
Petitioner Ahmed Raza, whose cousin died because of a fatal reaction from the medicines, had contended that on January 21, he approached the police to register an FIR against the accused but the SHO refused to file it. He has asked the court to direct the SHO to register a case.
But the SHO, in his reply to the court, said that the petitioner had neither visited the police station nor had he met the petitioner. He said that a report had been sent to senior officials to constitute a commission under the Punjab Healthcare Commission Act 2010 and once the panel finalises its inquiry report, an FIR will be registered if the accused are found guilty.
The judge, stating that the matter is already pending with the Lahore High Court, fixed January 30 as the next date for hearing.
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The Federal government has to set up the equivalent of the US FDA which monitors and checks medicines in the country.
People involved in killing around 100 people should be severely punished.
Enormity of this tragedy has sympathies of most Pakistani people. It seems that once again politicians are using this unfortunate event for their own gains. In doing so the Pharmaceutical companies have already been identified as the guilty parties and a number of vital issues have been sidelined: • Why are the patients all from a specific area? Surely the five companies must have supplied their product in other regions too. This area has been hard hit by dengue fever. Is it possible that ordinarily this drug would have been fine but has been prescribed to a patient who is already suffering from a decrease in platelets. • Assuming that the drug is directly responsible for this loss of life, surely the responsibility goes way beyond the manufacturer. We are informed by our ‘honourable politicians’ that the drugs have been sent to other countries for testing. If there is no facility for the medicine to be confirmed safe then whose is to determine what is safe in Pakistan? Surely not just the party who made it. • Another snippet of news relayed that there was no expiry dates on some of the medicine. If so, why was it accepted by the hospital? Why was it dispensed from the pharmacy? • Drugs that are consumed by the patients in Pakistan are tested for ‘pre-qualification’ and then tested again before payment. This gives rise to two questions – 1. The final responsibility for safety is with the testing agency and why are they running free when the manufacturer has been arrested? 2. How valid are these tests if now we are looking to other countries for testing? • In the absence of the testing facilities in this country and with so many other bodies of responsibility, is it right to show expedience by these quick arrests?
We all want to get to the bottom of this issue, but let us have a true review and get to the real root cause rather than expressing satisfaction with the politically convenient scapegoats’ and leaving the real issue where it has always been – under the carpet.