The Lahore High Court on Tuesday summoned Lahore District Coordination Officer Ahad Cheema in court on October 19 on a petition against sealing an herbal medicine manufacturing factory. The court directed the DCO to explain whether or not drug inspectors had been given powers by him to seal the premises of an herbal medicine manufacturing factory, fulfilling formalities given in Section 19(6) of the drugs Act 1976. Justice Nasir Saeed Sheikh passed the order on a petition filed by Muhammad Saleem against the DCO, Punjab health secretary and Provincial Drug Inspector Aziz Bhatti.
The petitioner said he had been running a business of manufacturing herbal medicine for the last eight years under the name of ‘Allegro Lab’ in Harbanspura. He said Drug Inspector Aziz Bhatti, on October 8, raided his factory with a police team and seized various medicines, alleging that unregistered medicines were being manufactured without a license. He said the drug inspector had lodged a case against him and sealed the factory, while also arresting the factory manger.
The petitioner said the drug inspector illegally sealed the factory; without obtaining the mandatory permission from the Provincial Quality Control Board.
He said the act was against the law as herbal medicines were exempt from the application of Drug Act 1976. He demanded the court issue directions to unseal the factory. On Tuesday, upon being summoned, Drug Inspector Aziz Bhatti appeared in court to explain his position.
The court asked the inspector to explain under what law he had sealed the factory. The drug inspector contended that the powers were delegated by the DCO in this regard. On this, the court adjourned the matter to October 19, and summoned the DCO to explain his position. The court also ordered the drug inspector produce the written permission granted him for the purpose.
— issues notices to 118 private medical colleges: A Lahore High Court division bench Tuesday issued notice to as many as 118 private medical colleges of the province to seek their respective reply to a petition alleging they were not following the prescribed rules, and lacked proper facilities and infrastructure. The petition was filed by the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) through Waseem Buddar, inter alia, contending that private colleges did not have the mandatory 500-beds facilities, and did not provide house jobs to MBBS students. The petitioner added that most of the colleges did not provide free medical treatment on 250 beds and also were without nursing colleges.
The petitioner contended that the hospitals were not abiding by the rules and regulations set by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), which had lowered the students-teachers ratio to the mutual benefit of both, and for the sake of quality education. The petitioner added that due to substandard education and the absence of facilities, the future of a large number of students was dark, notwithstanding the fact that had they paid lakhs to complete their education at these private colleges.
University of Health Sciences (UHS) filed reply to the petition, while representative of the private college urged the court for time for this purpose. The bench of Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Khalid Mahmood Khan allowed time to the colleges and put the hearing off till October 31.
— orders IG to allow cops to sit in tests: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday directed Punjab Police Inspector General (IGP) to apply ‘uniform policy’ in nomination of names of police officials interested in serving in the United Nations Peace Keeping Missions in various countries.
The court also ordered the IGP allow police officials to sit in the test being conducted by the UN teams for selection of police officials for the peace missions.
Justice Azmat Saeed passed verdicts on identical petitions filed by various constables to DSP ranked officers challenging “a self styled screening test” conducted by the IGP, who had dropped their names from the final list of 150 candidates appearing in the United Nations Selection Assistance Team (UNSAT) 2011 test. The petitioners, including DSP Muhammad Umer Farooq, Faisal Maqbool Bhatti, and Abid Javed, are serving at the Lahore PHQ Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) in the Punjab Police. They said they had prior experience, having served twice in peace missions as police advisors, and had been awarded medals also by the UN for their excellent services in the African Union mission in Darfur.
However, the IG rejected their names and made a final list including names of his particular favourite officials, through a screening test which was not standardised like the UNSAT tests, which was the final authority in the selection process. They demanded the court direct the Punjab IG to give them permission to sit in the written examination of UNSAT.
Azmat said the Police IG had not acted impartially in this case and had not applied uniform policy for UN mission candidates. The judge ordered the IG to enter the petitioners’ names to the final list of candidates, and to let the UN team decide their eligibility after the tests and interviews. With these instructions the court sought reply from the IG police within four weeks.
CCPO promotion: Lahore High Court on Tuesday ordered the Islamabad Establishment Secretariat Promotion Board to forward enquiry report of CCPO Lahore Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir to the prime minister for his promotion to the next grade.
A report from the Federal Secretary Establishment office was presented in Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry court on a petition filed by the CCPO, challenging the hurdles being erected in the his promotion from grade 20 to grade 21. Reading out the report, a deputy attorney told the court that Tahir had been found guilty in the Gojra incidents, and his case was thus not recommended, as it would open the way for other officers to ask for promotions when they had been suspended or held guilty.
The counsel for Tahir submitted that his client had not been directly involved in the Gojra incident and the establishment division was misusing that incident to deny him promotion.
