Justice Umer Ata Bandial will hear on Thursday (today) a petition seeking directions for conducting judicial inquiry into the deaths of over 70 patients by the reaction of spurious medicines at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).
The Lahore High Court (LHC) judicial registrar on Wednesday admitted the petition for hearing, declaring it maintainable and fixed it before court of Justice Bandial for today. The petition also seeks the making of an effective mechanism to control the sale and supply of sub-standard medicines at hospitals and medical stores.
The petition was filed by Judicial Activism Panel Chairman Muhammad Azhar Siddique advocate. In the petition he has impleaded the federal government, Punjab government, federal Health Department, federal Ministry of Industries, Pakistan Quality Control Board, provincial health secretary, Pakistan Institute of Quality chief executive, FIA, Lahore commissioner, Lahore DCO, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Race Course Police SHO.
The petitioner contended that the Punjab government had failed to check the sale of spurious drugs. He said that hundreds of patients die annually due to fake medicines and no action has been taken against the responsible officials in the Health Department due to loopholes in the system.
He said that over a week had elapsed since the death of patients at the PIC but the Punjab government was yet to start an inquiry under the Judicial Inquiry Tribunal Act.
He alleged that the government was trying to stifle the issue by a casual departmental inquiry.
LHC CJ thumps TCP on
dubious response on sugar: LHC Chief Justice Azmat Saeed on Wednesday expressed annoyance on failure of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in submitting a record of the purchase of sugar by it, on a petition hinting at an impending sugar crisis.
Petitioner Ahmad Imran Ghazi, through his counsel Azhar Siddique advocate, pleaded that the TCP had purchased sugar from the sugar mills in abundance on very high rates which was a malafide step, aimed at pushing up the price of sugar in the open market. He said that sugar was available in the open market at Rs 53 per kilogramme, while TCP has purchased it at Rs 65 per kg from the sugar mills, benefiting the sugar mafia indirectly. He submitted that by way of purchasing about 100,000 MT sugar, the national exchequer would face a loss of Rs 2.5 billion and the public would be forced to purchase sugar at higher prices.
The CJ inquired the TCP counsel on the quantity of sugar purchased by TCP this year, to which the TCP counsel remained mum and sought time for submitting a reply. The CJ rebuked him, observing that the court will not tolerate injustice done to people by creating an artificial shortage of essential commodities.
The court adjourned the hearing till February 10, giving time to TCP for filing a report on the matter.
Maj (retired) Saleem gets bail in death of 3 female students: Additional District & Sessions Judge Shahida Saeed on Wednesday confirmed after-arrest bail of Major (retired) Muhammad Saleem, allegedly involved in showing negligence in security arrangements at the Punjab Cultural Complex, where three female students died and six had been severely injured.
The judge confirmed his bail against a surety bound of Rs100,000.
The petitioner, Major (retired) Muhammad Saleem, contended that he was implicated in a false case, adding that the concert mishap was an accident. He told the court that a student had joked that there was a bomb in the hall which caused fear among the students who ran amok and the mishap took place. He said that there was no negligence on the part of the college administration.
The complainant, Naseem Abbas Malik, had got an FIR registered against Punjab Group of Colleges Security In-charge Major (retired) Muhammad Saleem, Principal Agha Tahir Saleem and security guard Muhammad Iqbal security guard, in the Gulberg Police Station under the sections 322 and 337/L2 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
LHC seeks report on
unlawful transport fares: The LHC CJ on Wednesday sought a reply from the Punjab government, regional transport authority secretary and local and foreign transport companies on a petition against the unlawful increase in transport fares.
The CJ was hearing a petition, filed by Muhammad Saeed Zafar advocate, contending that the private and public transport companies were charging many times more fare than the approved fares from Lahore to Sheikhupura.
He said the local and foreign transport companies that were plying buses for commuters were getting subsidy from the government, despite that they were charging exorbitant fares without any fare list.
The court sought reply after initial arguments from the petitioner counsel.
Full bench to hear case against foreign directors of Sammi Daewoo: Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the LHC on Wednesday referred a petition, against non-compliance of sessions court orders for registration of case against the foreign directors of Sammi Daewoo, to the LHC CJ with a request to constitute a larger bench.
The court observed that some important points had been raised through the petition regarding difficulties faced by the people to get their cases registered despite sessions court orders, therefore, a larger bench be constituted to hear the petition.
The petition was filed by Muhammad Inaam Ali, submitting that he had been simultaneously working as the chief financial officer and director in the Sammi Logistics and as the country general manager of Daewoo Pakistan Express, a sister company of Sammi logistics. He said that he had resigned from the office of country general manager, however, he alleged that the company’s directors prepared a forged document, according to which he had resigned from all the posts that he held in the company.
The petitioner said that he had filed a petition against the forgery in the sessions court, which gave orders to Gulberg police station SHO and the concerned ASP to record the petitioner’s statement and take action in accordance with the law. However, the police officials were not following the court orders and did not register a case against the accused persons.
On Wednesday, a report was submitted to the court from inspector general of police Punjab in this regard. The IGP suggested that the court, before passing the order for case registration, should seek comments from the concerned SHO.
PIC judicial investigation petition to be heard today
