The Punjab Health Department has started work on draft of the Provincial Drug Regulatory Act to be presented in the Punjab Assembly (PA), as the governor has rejected the summary for the drug regulatory ordinance moved by the Punjab government, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The Punjab government moved a summary of the drug regulatory ordinance to the governor, who rejected the summary on the ground that the government should table it in the PA and it should be an act instead of an ordinance. The governor also mentioned another reason that the federal government is already working on a drug regulatory authority.
The provincial government has asked the federal government to continue exercising powers under the Drug Regulatory Act 1976 for one month until the government completes the legal formalities to adopt the act. Talking to Pakistan Today, legal experts said that drug regulation was in the concurrent list, which has been abolished and its subjects devolved to the provinces completely after passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment.
They said that according to the constitution, the federal government could not set up a regulatory authority on a subject in the provincial list. “The governor has a point in saying that the Punjab government should adopt drug regulation as an act and not as an ordinance,” they said adding that the federal government could regulate drugs only if four provincial assemblies pass a resolution in this regard.
