PIC tragedy: Judge asks what govt will do differently

AIG presents report on purchase of medicine.

LAHORE:

Justice Umar Atta Bandial of Lahore High Court on Monday asked the Punjab government to inform the court by February 22, about steps it has taken to change its policy on purchase of medicines.

The judge was hearing a petition by Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique seeking a judicial commission to investigate the deaths tainted medicines provided at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

Additional Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed told the court that during the investigation, the police uncovered irregularities in the purchase of medicine by the PIC. He said the investigation team had concluded that the PIC management preferred to purchase cheap rather than quality medicines.

Justice Bandial remarked, “It seems that human life has no value here.”

Being a guardian of basic human rights, he said, the courts would not let anybody risk lives.

The AIG also submitted the inquiry report. He told the court police had found substandard medicines from two factories including Efroze Chemical Company, Karachi. He said no company owner had been arrested as they had secured protective bails from Sindh High Court. He said PIC record suggested that the medicines had not been tested.

The judge ordered the investigation team to report those selling spurious or inferior drugs to the court by February 22, the date of next hearing.

The health secretary submitted a report regarding the patients affected by tainted drugs. He said between December 23, 2011 and February 11, 2010, 929 patients were reported to have been affected by the medicine. They were admitted in various hospitals across the province. Of these, he said, 707 patients had been discharged after making a recovery, while 103 patients were still under treatment. He said 120 patients had died, 70 of them in Lahore.

On a query about the payment of Rs500,000 compensation to each bereaved family, the additional advocate general assured the court that payments would be made by the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the inquiry tribunal, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, summoned the former health secretary and former chief executive of the PIC to appear before the tribunal on Tuesday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2012.