Govt hospital drugs on sale in open market

Karachi
The Federal Investigation Agency seized on Wednesday a large quantity of medicines being sold at a pharmacy in Old City area even though they were meant for public hospitals or government institutions for their free distribution or physician samples that are not for sale. Some of the drugs were also found to be counterfeit.
FIA Sindh additional director Jawed Akber Riaz said after receiving complaints, his department’s Anti-Corruption Circle accompanied by provincial drug inspectors raided a pharmacy, B Chemist, at the Medicine Market in Kutchi Gali near Denso Hall in Saddar and two warehouses located nearby in Kutchi Gali No 2 at the medicine corner.
At the pharmacy, the raiding team found a man named Mohammad Junaid altering the labels of physician samples medicines. Later, many physician samples, counterfeit drugs, and medicines mean for public hospitals, dispensaries and other institutions were found at the shops and its two warehouses.
Besides state-run hospitals, the medicines were meant for the Pakistan International Airlines, The Pakistan Rangers, the Karachi Port Trust Hospital, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, the Alamgir Trust, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Sindh Employees' Social Security Institution, the Population Welfare Trust, the Provincial Tuberculosis Control, the Pakistan Defence Courses, the Population Welfare Department, the Social Security Department, the Punjab Employees' Social Security Institution, the Balochistan government and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The official said these medicines were siphoned off and being sold in the market. He added that samples of the medicines were taken for their analysis on the scene in presence of witnesses in accordance with the drug law.
Initial inquiry has revealed that the drugs belonged to Mohammad Junaid, who had bought them from several brokers, commission agents, employees of various government and non-government institutions and representatives of government entities.
The FIA has registered an FIR against Junaid and his associates and formally arrested him.
The official said following Junaid’s disclosures, the FIA is planning to conduct an inquiry against government employees and non-government institutions who were involved in the sale of these medicines.
In the first phase, the FIA will write a letter to the government offices concerned demanding that they should launch inquiries against their officers who were involved in the drug trade.“We have started sending these letters and will take further action later,” the FIA additional director said.