ISLAMABAD: Around three years after the enlistment of over 11,000 medicines without the mandatory price fixation, the transgression of the drug regulator is on the radar screen of the Federal Investigation Agency.
The FIA’s Corporate Crime Cell, Lahore, has formally summoned the DRAP officials to its offices next Wednesday (January 13) along with the medicine enlistment records to explain their respective positions. It warned that non-compliance with the call-up notices would lead to legal proceedings against those named in the case.
In the notices sent to the suspects, including former acting directors/additional directors Dr Noor Muhammad Shah and Dr Fakhruddin Amir and former director Dr Abdul Samad from the DRAP's Health and Over the Counter Drugs section and assistant director (law) Hafiz Bilal bin Akbar, the FIA said the Auditor General of Pakistan had found the DRAP ‘mafia’ of enlisting 11,204 medicines in April 2019 without fixing their prices and thus, robbing people to the tune of billions of rupees.
While ordering the production of documents carrying the names of DRAP-enlisted medicines, their prices, sampling by the federal drug inspectors, test reports issued by the Central Drug Laboratory, Karachi, and drugs, the FIA wondered under what authority, the suspects issued the drug enlistment certificates in violation of Section 4 of the DRAP Act, 2012, and Section 12 of the Drug Act, 1976, and why they deemed it necessary to ‘enlist medicines since 2014 wherein their registration process was under way since 1940’.
It specially asked the DRAP assistant director (law) under what law, he declared in a writ petition filed with the Islamabad High Court in 2017 that the GS1 Pakistan contractor will neither collect any data from pharmaceutical companies nor will it be charged for providing services to those companies. He was also told to appear with the records of first contract awarded to GS1 for the provision of software support to pharmaceutical companies for printing bar codes on medicine packaging, second bidding and tendering process, and the statutory regulatory order’s formulation and approval. The FIA warned that failure to comply with the call-up notice would suggest they have nothing in their defence on the issue and a legal action may ensue on the basis of the evidence available on record.
According to the FIA officials, the unjust enlistment without fixing the maximum retail price inflated the rates of those medicines to the people’s misery as their prices aren’t set by the DRAP.
When contacted, Dr Abdul Samad claimed that the issue was raised by Dr Noor Muhammad Shah when he headed the DRAP (HOCD) section, but he was removed by the ministry after the issue snowballed into a full-blown controversy. He also said he succeeded Dr Noor and pointed out poor quality of the enlisted medicines, which led to his removal as well. "We both [Dr Samad and Dr Noor] support the inquiry and will offer all possible support and cooperation to the FIA for it," he said.
Dr Noor parried the question saying he was a government employee and the service rules don't allow him to speak to the media without the ministry's formal permission, which he doesn't have at the moment. Hafiz Bilal said he won't comment on the matter as he didn't formally receive any call-up notice from the FIA. A senior official of the national health services ministry, which oversees the DRAP, also promised the FIA ‘full’ cooperation for holding the probe.