Senators absolve Punjab government of blame in spurious drugs chaos

Treasury and opposition members of the Senate on Friday absolved the Punjab government of any blame in the deaths caused by spurious drugs in the province, saying it was due to weak infrastructure and lack of legal mechanism that the manufacturers of sub-standard drugs continued with their business.
They asked the respective governments not to start a blame-game but deal with the issue as a humanitarian one instead of a political one. Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain said it would not be appropriate to term the deaths murder or blame anybody for the negligence. He said it was due to wrong policies that so many people lost their lives.
“After the 18th Amendment, drug regulation was also devolved to the provinces but none of them established drug regulatory bodies,” he said. He added that never ever in the whole world did regulatory authority rest with the provinces. He proposed a resolution to support the formation of a drug regulatory authority at the federal level and also criticised the doctors who prescribe sub-standard medicines to patients.
Senator Raza Rabbani told the House that it was because of the federal government’s unwillingness for hand over Sheikh Zayed Hospital to the Punjab government that the latter did not respond swiftly to the formation of the proposed federal drug regulatory authority, which collectively led to a poor regulatory system and resulted in so many deaths in Lahore. Speaking on a point of order, he said it was agreed during consultations on the 18th Amendment that an independent drug regulatory authority comprising representatives of all four provinces would be set up at the federal level to regulate drug manufacturing across the country. However, he added, during the last phase of the devolution process, the federal government declined to hand over Sheikh Zayed Hospital to the Punjab government and subsequently Punjab also did not cooperate on the issue. He told the House further it was agreed that until such time that a final agreement was reached between the provinces, the current system would continue under which the Cabinet Division was responsible for dealing with such matters. He said now the provinces would have to raise the issue at the Council of Common Interest (CCI) and bring a unanimous resolution under Article 142 of the constitution so as to pave the way for the formation of the regulatory authority. He said further if that if the government was establishing a new ministry comprising departments of the devolved ministries, it would be unconstitutional. However, Senator Wasim Sajjad differed with Rabbani, saying there was no need to bring a resolution under Article 142. Senator Haroon Akhtar endorsed Rabbani’s point of view saying the Cabinet Division was responsible for dealing with health issues at the federal level.
Senator Ishaq Dar said if the federal government handed over Sheikh Zayed Hospital to the Punjab government, the Punjab Assembly would pass a resolution to establish the drug regulatory authority. Earlier, some of the senators, including Tahir Mashhadi and Kazim Khan, held the Punjab government responsible for the deaths from spurious drugs in Lahore. The Senate chairman referred the matter to the Standing Committee on Cabinet and also referred a calling-attention notice about reported import of millions of automatic weapons to the country during the last many years to the Finance Ministry.