KARACHI: Issues relating to the administration and regulation of drugs and the role of the federal and provincial governments would be sorted out at a meeting to be held on October 11 in Islamabad, the FHS stated Wednesday before a division bench of the Sindh High Court.
The bench headed by Justice Amir Hani Muslim was hearing criminal revision applications filed by the State against those accused in drug cases (fake medicines) who were given a sentence till the rising of the court.
The State maintained in the criminal revision applications that the special drug court awarded sentences to the accused till the rising of the court and also fined them Rs20,000 each, while the law prescribes a minimum sentence of three years.
On Wednesday, when the revision applications came up for hearing before the court, the Prosecutor General Sindh submitted that the provincial health department was not implementing the relevant laws.
He said that in case of conviction, the court concerned was supposed to cancel the license of the druggist and also issue an advertisement as a warning to people.
The FHS present on court notice said that drug control was on the concurrent list but after the recent amendments (XVIII amendment) to the Constitution, it was now a provincial subject.
To a query by the court, he stated that a meeting was scheduled on Oct 11 in which all four provincial health secretaries and the FHS would be finalising the details on drugs and would harmonise the working of the department as far as the implementation of the provisions of the Drug Act 1976 (Act of 1976 ) or its allied problems were concerned.
The FHS also informed the SHC bench that setting the standard of medicines is still part of the Federal Legislative List. He also disclosed that the “provincial health departments” were facing financial constraints and in Sindh they were short of 10 drug inspectors.
The chairman of the provincial quality control board present in court stated that the summary to strengthen the drug administration was approved by the chief minister three years back, but it was not implemented for want of funds.
The bench later put off the hearing till Oct 14, dispensing the FHS from appearing before the court but ordering the health secretary of Sindh, its finance secretary and the chairman of the provincial quality control board to be in attendance and apprise the court about the actions taken to address the issues regarding the enforcement of drug rules.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2010.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ