Substandard medicines: Court directs NAB to probe spurious drug suppliers

Seeks progress report from provincial NAB DG in 15 days.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to probe those involved in the manufacture and supply of spurious drugs and take stern action against them.

A two-member bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Asadullah Khan Chamkani issued the order while hearing a suo motu notice taken over substandard interferon injections.

During the hearing, Justice Khan remarked the court had been directing the government to amend the Drug Act and with a maximum sentence for the accused since the past two years, but to no avail. “The drug mafia is very strong and spends large amounts of money to obtain licences to manufacture drugs, thus keeping prices under their control,” said the chief justice.



“Around 80% of drugs are supplied by Punjab and there are serious loopholes in the current law, which gives an advantage to the perpetrators. This mafia is fleecing poor patients of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P),” he added.

Deputy Attorney General Muhammad Iqbal Mohmand informed the bench the federal government was incharge of all regulations related to medicines, not the provincial government. Dr Tariq Sadiq of the Health Regularity Authority told the court relevant laws and punishments exist, however, those responsible for implementing them remain unaware.

Justice Khan replied saying the drug mafia bribes officials, but the judiciary would never allow this to go unchecked. While the government promises reforms in the health sector and the eradication of corruption, spurious drug cases continue to emerge, he added.

“The substandard interferon vaccine case is one such example whereby many senior officials were arrested by the provincial Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE). However, federal government employees involved in such practices do not fall under the jurisdiction of the ACE and thus the drug mafia continues to operate freely,” said Justice Khan while referring to the case pertaining to substandard hepatitis C vaccines.

The bench then ordered the director general (DG) of NAB to constitute a team to investigate the massive corruption in the purchase of medicines and equipment on top priority basis.

Meanwhile, the PHC also directed the K-P NAB DG and ACE DG to hand over details of cases and investigations they had carried out so far in this regard. Provincial NAB DG was instructed to submit a progress report to the court in 15 days.

On February 6, the PHC took suo motu notice of the supply of substandard interferon injections used for treatment of hepatitis C in government-run hospitals of K-P. Consequently, three high-ranking officials including former K-P DG health services Dr Sharif Ahmad Khan, Maulvi Jee Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Muhammad Ali Chohan and project director Dr Ghulam Subhani were arrested by the ACE. A case was also registered against the owner of Lahore-based Pharmedic Pharmaceutical Company.

All three officials were later released on bail granted by an anti-corruption court and a Supreme Court registry branch.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23^rd, 2013.