Cough Syrup Deaths: Petitioner told to file amended plea

Petitioner maintains that officials responsible shall be charged under Section 300 of Pakistan Penal Code (Qatl-i-Amd)

LAHORE:

Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik of the Lahore High Court on Friday directed a petitioner to file an amended plea seeking a judicial inquiry into 16 deaths allegedly due to a cough syrup and for the registration of cases against the manufacturers and authorities concerned.

Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique filed the petition saying there was a dire need for a judicial inquiry into the deaths.  He said that the officials whose job it was to prevent such incidents should be charged under Section 300 of the Pakistan Penal Code (Qatl-i-Amd) to set a precedent so that in future, government officials took their jobs more seriously. Siddique had earlier moved two separate applications, to the chief minister and the chief secretary, seeking a judicial inquiry into the deaths among users of the cough syrup. He said that he would move the LHC if the government failed to order such an inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2012.