‘Drug Ordinance 2015 is unacceptable’

BAHAWALPUR:

Medical stores in the city remained closed on Monday in protest against the Punjab Drug Ordinance (Amended) 2015. Scores of owners of medical stores rallied on Circular Road and held a demonstration.

Chemists’ Association ex-president Chaudhry Shahid Hassan and acting president Chaudhry Ifitikhar Saleem said that the Punjab Drug Ordinance (Amended) 2015 was victimising the pharmaceutical industry. They said the Chemists’ Association had not been consulted while framing the ordinance and added that the law was draconian. “The government appears to have overlooked some objective realities.”

They said not only were drug inspectors openly abusing their powers but they had recently taken to making their own laws. “Harassing medical store owners and registering cases against them has become a common practice which the Chemists’ Association will not tolerate.” The association’s leaders requested the government to revoke the ordinance.

The protesters carried placards with slogans against the government inscribed on them. They also shouted slogans against the law.  The city’s largest medicines’ market in front of Bahawal Victoria Hospital had remained closed throughout the day.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2015.