Dengue outbreak in Peshawar: PHC seeks report as NAB says substandard drugs were used

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday sought a report from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the use of substandard vaccine during a dengue outbreak in 2017 in the provincial capital and other parts of the province.

A division bench comprising Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim directed the NAB prosecutor to produce the inquiry report about the use of substandard vaccine during the dengue outbreak in Peshawar.

The bench issued the direction after NAB’s senior prosecutor Azimdad informed the bench that substandard medicines were used in the dengue outbreak due to which the condition of several patients worsened as these were not registered with the World Health Organisation.

The NAB prosecutor submitted that some dengue patients died due to the substandard vaccine. The bench was hearing a writ petition of the Alpatageen Enterprises Medicines Company against the Health Department for recovery of money for providing medicine to the government during the dengue outbreak in the province.

However, counsel for the company submitted that the company provided medicines to the KP Health Department in 2017, but it stopped payment of Rs17.5 million to the company. Additional Advocate General Syed Sikandar Shah, representing the provincial government, submitted that the government stopped the payment of the amount to the company due to the NAB’s inquiry. The bench after hearing arguments directed the NAB KP to submit the report of the inquiry at next hearing about the claim that the medicines used in the dengue outbreak were substandard.