Court turns down company’s plea for a gag order. PHOTO: FILE
A three-member bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a proposal by Efroze Chemicals, manufacturers of Isotab, regarding payment of compensation to families of the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) patients who died from using a contaminated batch of the drug.
The company’s counsel said his clients were ready to raise the compensation to each family from Rs300,000 to Rs400,000. He said the payment would be made in 24 equal installments with a 20 per cent down payment.
Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani said if the court had to determine the amount of compensation it would order the company to pay in sterling pounds.
Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman were the other members of the bench.
The bench also turned down a plea by the company’s counsel to ask the government to close all pending inquiries and cases against it before the payment of the compensation.
The bench remarked that the cases and the inquiries against the pharmaceutical company were not the court’s concern.The counsel said the company would bear the extra burden of Rs300 million by enhancing the compensation amount.
Justice Nisar it was sad that the company’s owners, who were billionaires, were not ready to compensate the victims from their pockets.
The judge also rejected a request by the company’s counsel to bar the media from publishing/airing news about the proceedings. Justice Nisar said that the public had a right to know about the people responsible for the death of innocent patients. The bench adjourned further hearing till December 30 and directed the counsel to come up with a final reply on the mode of payment to families of the victims. The advocate general and the acting prosecutor general were also directed to be present. Karachi-based Efroze Chemicals is the manufacturer of Isotab, the medicine that caused the death of scores of cardiac patients treated at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2013.
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Pharmaceuticals are always willing to pay commission to doctors and bribe to health officials but here they are displaying callous disregard to their innocent victims. Punjab and federal government should also be penalized for very lax regulatory oversight and rules are required to framed to prevent such accidents in future.