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PESHAWAR, (MANEND NEWS): The health department has registered 31 cases against traders for selling spurious drugs in the market as part of its crackdown to stop business of fake and counterfeit medicines and safeguard the lives of people.
The drugs seized from different districts were found spurious as they didn’t contain the ingredients claimed by the manufactures and it was established under Section 11 of Drug Act 1976 that the perpetrators should face cases by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
A total of 79 cases were discussed in the meeting of Provincial Quality Control Board (PQCB) recently that recommended registration of FIRs against 31 drug stores for selling spurious medicines.
Sources told this scribe that 33 cases were sent to court for trial while four drugs were dispatched to the drug testing laboratory at National Institute of Health Islamabad for re-analysis.
They said that Health Secretary Mohammad Tahir Orakzai had ordered crackdown on the drug sellers involved in unlawful business under which cases were lodged on the basis of samples collected by drug inspectors from medical stores in Peshawar, Mardan, Malakand, Dir Upper, Nowshera, Haripur, Karak, Charsadda, Kohat, Abbottabad and Dera Ismail Khan.
The FIRs lodged with FIA contained charges of selling spurious, unregistered and manufacturing drugs without licences. The charges carry prison terms as well as monetary penalties.
Sources said that they had approached the alleged manufacturers of the drugs seized from medical stores but they denied the stuff being supplied by them due to which FIA was tasked to further probe the cases and take appropriate action.
They said that in most of the cases, the department sent cases to FIA because the drugs sold in the market were supplied from different provinces and police could not investigate them. They added that FIA had jurisdiction all over the country.
The department has 50 drug inspectors against sanctioned 65 posts. The inspectors are required to check about 12,000 drug stores in the province. The drug testing laboratory (DTL) tests samples only sent to it by the inspectors.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the performance of drug inspectors had slowed down but it has picked momentum again after decline in the number of coronavirus patients.
Officials said that the main cause of under-performance of the health department with regard to putting brakes on sale of fake, spurious and unregistered medicines was lack of support by the law enforcement agencies.
The inspectors conduct raids on markets and warehouses and seize fake medicines but the perpetrators often remain unpunished and as a result the business of counterfeit and fake pharmaceutical preparations continues unabated.
Last year, the department seized huge quantity of counterfeit drugs at 15 godowns in Karkhano Market but the dealers managed to escape despite the presence of officials of FIA, police and district administration. “The department needs law enforcement agencies for laying hands on the big stores operating illegally but the owners of such outlets even manage to roam scot-free despite the presence of security agencies,” said officials.
They said that department had no force and banked on the law enforcement agencies for investigation of such offences. It recommended to FIA to register cases against the people involved in selling Indian, Iranian, Chinese and other illegally imported drugs, they said.
They said that Karkhano Market and Namak Mandi were replete with counterfeit drugs including sex pills, antibiotics, analgesics and pain killer but the department required either its own police or support by the law enforcement agencies to continue campaigns on regular basis.
The director-general health services didn’t give version about the matter. However, a senior health official said that the issue was brought into the notice of government and top officials were trying to enlist support of law enforcers. “We can improve our performance in case we get support of police, FIA etc,” he said, wishing not to be named.