Concerned with the situation, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) filed the petition asking the court to legally enforce action by the ministry. Justice Mamoon Rasheed Sheikh was the sole member of the bench entertaining the PMA Rawalpindi Chapter President Dr Arshad Rana’s petition. The Ministry of Health had been asked to respond to the petition by Thursday as it was “a matter of serious public concern.”
On April 19, 1994, the ministry included disposable syringes in the category of drugs, giving July 15, 1996 as the deadline to register syringes with the Drugs Registration Board of the ministry.
According to the petition, the ministry had been extending the deadline for registering disposable syringes and the inaction was jeopardising the population’s health.
Rana said that every sixth person in Pakistan suffers from Hepatitis B and C. He said that availability of unregistered, low quality syringes was the main reason for spread of diseases.
The court will next hear the case on November 1.
If the court’s orders are implemented, all manufacturers and sellers of disposable syringes will have to register themselves within a week. Any firm that fails to do so can be prosecuted under the Drug Act of 1976. This includes fines extending to Rs100,000 and/or arrests with jail time between 3-10 years.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 29th, 2010.
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