The pharmacist and the store keeper of a laboratory were ordered against giving out the adulterated medicines which had visible spots on them, but they went against the decision and handed out the fatal medicine.
It was recently revealed that the licence of one of the three pharmaceutics laboratories that supplied the apparently contaminated drugs to the PIC expired in April 2011. The company continued to manufacture the medicines in bulk and even supplied them in the open market in addition to governmental hospitals.
The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed to probe the PIC medicine case, comprising FIA officials and the federal inspector of drugs, decided to contact the families of the patients who reportedly died due to the reaction of the medicine.
The team has initiated a door-to-door operation to record statements of the family members to obtain relevant documents and proof in the case.
The Punjab Home Department also wrote a letter to the interior ministry and the FIA on January 25 to include the names of the owners of five under-question pharmaceutical laboratories in the Exit Control List.
On the other hand, the Punjab government has itself failed to take any legal action in the case so far.
Out of the five laboratories allegedly involved in supplying the adulterated medicines, three are in Lahore and the rest are in Karachi. The FIA Punjab Chapter has registered cases against the laboratories in Lahore, but the Sindh Chapter has not registered any cases.
The medicine has so far resulted in the deaths of 109 people in the Punjab province, as three more people died on Saturday in the Services Hospital.
The dead include 60-year-old Sarwar Bibi, 70-year-old Rasheed Bibi and 37-year-old Rehmat.
Petition filed against Shahbaz Sharif
A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court against Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
The petition said that the absence of a health minister resulted in the death of over a 100 people, and the chief minister should appoint a minister to control the situation.
The petition also claimed that it was against the rules of business that the chief minister is in-charge of 18 ministries in the province.
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Didn't know Pakistani FIA and Police are qualified epidemiologists and pathologists as well? I am impressed!
This is disgusting and a clear indictement of misgovernance.
How many autopsies have been carried out? How many deaths have been conclusively linked to the medicines through forensic examination? What contaminants were found and linked to the deaths directly?
Obviously they are irrelevant questions since FIA and the "authorities" know every thing!!
Golden opportunity to extort money. Who is next; the taxi driver who gave ride to the store keeper? How about the doctors who prescribed it, ward boys who transported it, nurses who administered it and above all the administrators who allowed the meidicines on the hospital grounds? Why not arrest the whole city? Oh I forgot; we already live in the largest prison in the universe!
Oops!!
Poor pharmacist and store keeper are being make the scape goats here.
They were ordered to not hand out the adulterated medicines which "had visible spots" on them, Thats some way to identify adulterated medicines.
This country has become a joke.
but CM is just very sad about the tragic incident, and he is not ready to accept the failure, CM is directly responsible for the deaths of these patients as he was the In-Charge of the Ministry. Worst CM of the Punjab Shahbaz Shareef