SC seeks FIA report on drug deaths at PIC

pakistantoday.com

The Supreme Court (SC) sought on Tuesday a detailed report from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the 120 deaths caused by spurious drugs in Punjab and directed the Tribunal of Enquiry, appointed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) chief justice to ascertain the causes of death or ailment, determine who was responsible for lapses and make recommendations to avert such catastrophes in future, to proceed with its investigation.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani was hearing a suo motu case on the deaths of more than 120 heart patients under treatment in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) allegedly because of spurious drugs or wrong prescription of blood thinning and lipid lowering medicines. Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq, Punjab Advocate General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, Additional Punjab Advocate General Jawad Hassan, Punjab Health Secretary Nadeem Hasan Arif, Punjab Police Inspector General Javed Iqbal and FIA Director (Legal) Azam Khan appeared in court on notice.
The Punjab advocate general submitted a report on the deaths and their causes, telling the bench that Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had constituted an enquiry committee after taking notice of the causalities of patients who were under treatment at the PIC. He said the committee included seven professors of various medical colleges, and was head by Najam Saeed, who was the chairman of the CM’s Inspection Team. He said certain consignments of drugs were received by PIC at certain stages which were returned and never consumed. The court observed that the committee’s report, insofar as cause of deaths was concerned, was inconclusive. The court also observed that after the submission of report, the committee was no longer functioning and instead on the request of the provincial government, the LHC chief justice had appointed a Tribunal of Enquiry to ascertain the causes of deaths/ailments as well as determine who was responsible. The attorney general told the court that no doctor or owner of any pharmaceutical company was arrested on the directions of the provincial government. Azam Khan submitted that three cases were registered with regards to the deaths at PIC, adding that three owners of pharmaceutical companies, Chaudhry Muhammad Waseem, Chaudhry Nadir Khan and Dr M Tahir Azam, were arrested. He said although the cause of death of the patients in question was still not known, these cases were registered on the complaint of the federal drug inspector under Sections 23/27 of the Drugs Act of 1976.
He told the court that the FIA was not aware of the context of the SC order on January 30 under which the agency was told to release arrested people on personal bonds. He nevertheless undertook to release all arrested people subject to their furnishing personal bonds to the satisfaction of the deputy registrar of the LHC, except Chaudhry Muhammad Waseem, the owner of a pharmaceutical company manufacturing drugs without a valid licence. The attorney general submitted that although under the terms of Article 270-AA(6) of the constitution, the subject of health had been devolved to the provinces, yet the enforcement of the Drugs Act of 1976 partly continued to be within the ambit of the FIA and therefore, the cases were registered.