Drugs Testing, Research Centre handed over to Health Dept

LAHORE: Pakistan Drugs Testing and Research Centre (PDTRC), founded in 2015 to test and research drugs in order to control fake drugs in the market, was handed over to the Punjab Health Department Friday by Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company.

Minister for Industries, Commerce, and Investment Mian Aslam Iqbal signed an agreement of handing over the Centre to Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid. PDTRC is a certified ISO 17025:2015 laboratory. It has cleared two audits of pre-qualification of World Health Organisation. Punjab Industrial Estates Development and Management Company Chairman Shoaib Zahid Malik said the state-of-the-art drug testing facility has worked tirelessly to provided people safe and quality medicines. He said the research centre had helped in increasing pharmaceutical exports by collaborating and strengthening its relationship with other international standard laboratories. During the ceremony, the minister said the PTI government was not only working to provide the masses with quality medicine but is also working towards abolishing substandard and fake medicines from the market. For this purpose, a record budget and funding will be announced in the near future. He said that under the leadership of PM Imran Khan a lot of work was being done to promote health and education. He said that in the past hundreds of innocent lives were lost due to these substandard and fake drugs; however, the present government would not let this happen anymore and strict action would be taken against the perpetrators.

Dr Yasmin Rashid assured that this facility would flourish and the all-out effort would be made to upgrade and make it stronger and more efficient to serve the people. She said pharmaceutical industries within industrial estates would be given priority for bio-equivalence and medicine tests.

OPC: A delegation of eight members of Overseas Pakistanis Commission (OPC) visited PPIC3 at Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) Headquarters to set first-hand insight of the facility.

The delegation was briefed about various arms and functions of the project and the advanced technologies supporting it. The delegates were shown round different sections of PPIC3. They said it was commendable that the latest equipment and technology were being used for security, surveillance and seamless monitoring in the City round the clock.

Moot: Conference on “Right to education without discrimination” was held here Friday urging the government to undertake effective measures in this regard.

The conference resolution, unanimously adopted, called for, among other steps, the removal of hate material from education curricula; education quota for minorities in higher education institutes, and expansion of subject options available to minority students vis-à-vis religious education to enforce their right to study their own religion as guaranteed under Article 22 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. Prominent academics, policy experts and civil society representatives participated in the conference as speakers and guests including, Dr AH Nayyar, Ms Baela Jameel and Peter Jacob highlighted the major challenges existing at the institutional and individuals levels that continue to violate the fundamental rights of minority citizens/communities in Pakistan.