A judicial magistrate on Friday extended for another five days the physical remand of the owners of three pharmaceutical factories, accused of selling spurious medicines to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and returned them in custody of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
In previous proceedings, the magistrate had remanded the accused for three days in the custody of FIA and directed the agency’s officials to produce them before the court on January 27.
On Friday, the FIA produced the three accused, Dr Tahir Azam, Waseem Chaudhary and Ch Nadir, the owners of Alfa Pharma, Mega Pharma and Pharma, before the court of judicial magistrate Irfan Basra and sought 10-day physical remand to investigate them further because some questions had remained unanswered about the spurious medicines case that took the lives of hundreds of patients at PIC.
Asad Gillani advocate, counsel for the accused, pleaded that his clients were innocent, therefore he had no objection if the remand was extended by the court. However, he requested the judge to direct the FIA officials that the statements of his clients be made part of the case record during the investigation so that facts may not be distorted at a later stage. The FIA official assured the court that the concerns of the counsel for accused would be kept in mind.
During the hearing, the counsel for the accused said that his clients were innocent as the deaths of the patients were not caused by the medicines but because of the negligence of the PIC doctors. He said that a committee formed by the chief minister was probing the matter and until it’s report surfaces, the remand may not be granted to FIA and the accused be granted bails.
He said that the Punjab government had put the blame entirely on the pharmaceutical companies, while the federal government had directed the FIA to register cases against the medicine manufacturers for point scoring. He said that it was a conspiracy against the local pharmaceuticals companies which were already facing several problems and such cases will damage their business and benefit the multinational companies. The FIA had arrested the owners of the pharmaceutical companies on Monday after registering three cases against them on the complaint of drug inspectors, during an inquiry initiated by the FIA, on instructions from Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
On Tuesday, the FIA investigators submitted an initial report to the magistrate, stating that most of the medicines provided to the PIC hospital by companies of the accused were found to be sub-standard and it was quite possible that the deaths of the patients were caused by the expired medicines. The FIA said many medicines from the aforesaid companies were found to have expired, while some did not even carry expiry dates on the medicine labels. The medicines were sub-standard and made in unhygienic environment, FIA said. The FIA had requested the court to grant a remand of the accused so the matter may be investigated properly.
