Directing the doctors to return to work, the court said that boycotting their duties was undermining a fundamental right of patients, which is the right to live.
About 150 members of the Young Doctors Association protested outside the PIC on Wednesday, demanding that senior doctors who had been removed from their positions following the PIC drugs tragedy be restored.
A three-member bench of the SC, headed by Justice Shakirullah Jan, resumed hearing on Thursday of a suo motu case on deaths of heart patients from spurious medicines provided free by the PIC. Dr Faqir Hussain Khokar, the registrar at the SC, conveyed a copy of the court’s January 30 order in the case and asked Punjab Chief Secretary Nasir Khosa to submit details of names and designations of doctors who were on strike. He has also been asked to inform which doctors have been suspended and why.
Referring to media reports of the strike, the court also directed the province’s health secretary and advocate-general to appear before the court on Friday.
A letter by the registrar conveyed the court’s message to the doctors, which read that medicine is a noble profession and ailing patients need the care and attention of doctors. “It is not in consonance with the spirit of their noble calling to go on strike and leave patients unattended,” the letter said.
In the January 30 order, the court had said that the responsible authority must conduct a transparent inquiry according to the law, fix responsibility and propose action on matters that had risen after the PIC medicine disaster. “All doctors/officers/manufacturers of the relevant drugs shall fully cooperate with the inquiry which shall be concluded expeditiously. However, no such doctor or a person required in such investigation or inquiry shall be arrested and any doctor arrested in this regard shall be released forthwith subject to his personal bonds to the satisfaction of the deputy registrar (judicial) of the Lahore High Court,” the order said.
LHC inquiry tribunal appoints commission, interviews officers
The Inquiry Tribunal of the Lahore High Court probing into the deaths in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) tragedy on Thursday recorded statements of World Health Organisation (WHO) representatives. WHO Medicine Anti-Counterfeiting Programme and Quality Assurance and Safety Medicines technical officer Syed Khalid Saeed was interviewed by the tribunal. The tribunal comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan also appointed a commission to visit Efroz Chemical Industries in Karachi to inspect the premises, production and storage facilities and examine the relevant records of procurement, manufacture, sale and dispatch of medicines produced in the factory. The commission will also visit the Drug Testing Laboratory, meet the federal drug inspector and collect information from the investigating officer in Karachi. It will then submit its report to the tribunal. The tribunal has summoned former health secretary Jahanzeb Khan, chairman of the procurement committee and the PIC chief executive officer for February 20.
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i am physician but ashamed of what these nut head people are doing. what has suspension of three senior doctors is to do with patient care. PIC is minting money for these senior doctors. I have seen apathy of these so called senior doctors my self. Let the judicial inquiry complete.
This Ghunda gardi of so called literate is disgusting. Stern action should be taken against these beasts periods.