The Defective Drugs inquiry Tribunal comprising, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan of the Lahore High Court, continued its proceedings Wednesday. The Tribunal is probing the matter to ascertain causes of deaths of patients of PIC by use of contaminated drugs, determine if such causes relate to the use of certain drugs, the source of such drugs, fix responsibility at each stage and to make recommendations to prevent such incidents in the future. Since the matter is of great public importance, the Tribunal is conducting proceedings on a day to day basis. After proceedings on Wednesday, the tribunal issued notices to Production Manager, Altaf Ahmad Qureshi, Tabish Nomani, Amjad Lodhi, and Kashif Abdullah, Production Executives of Eforze Chemicals Limited, to appear before the Tribunal on Thursday.
On Wednesday the matter was fixed for appearance of M/s Atiq ur Rehman, Manager Quality Control, and Fayyaz Ahmad, Senior Quality Controller of Efroze Chemicals Limited, Karachi.
Advocate Khurram Saeed, appeared on behalf of the aforesaid persons as well as the Company and informed the Tribunal that the employees of the company had earlier been arrested by the police. They were finally released on April 10 this year pursuant to order passed by the Supreme Court and have returned to Karachi. He sought time to obtain instructions regarding appearance of management and employees of Efroze Chemicals before the Tribunal.
The counsel was informed that it would be in the interest of the Company to ensure the presence of their employees before the Tribunal in order to enable the Tribunal to arrive at a just and proper conclusion after giving the concerned persons a fair hearing and affording them an opportunity to present their point of view.
NOTICE ISSUED IN HAFIZ SAEED CASE: The LHC on Wednesday issued notice to Interior Ministry and the Home Department for April 25 on a petition filed by Jamaatud Daawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his aide Hafiz Abdur Rehman Maki seeking security for protection of their lives after United States announced their head money.
Per the danger posed to the lives of the petitioners, LHC Chief Justice Sh. Azmat Saeed directed them to filed applications to the Home Department for provision of security to them under the law. The petitioner’s counsel told the court that Pakistani courts had exonerated Hafiz Saeed from charges levelled against him by India and the US. He said the US recently announced $ 10 million bounty on Saeed besides $ 3 million on his brother-in-law Abdur Rehman Maki. He said the step was taken by the USA against his clients to please New Delhi because the US under secretary of state had made the announcement of head-money in his visit to India.
He said it was a clear breach of international law as no foreign state had right to interfere with liberty and security of citizen of another sovereign nation. He said the respondents be directed to protect petitioners as per constitution and make arrangement of their security. He also requested that the respondents be directed to seek withdrawal of the announcement of bounty. The CJ after hearing the arguments issued notice to the respondents for April 25 and directed federal and provincial law officers to file their comments on the next date of hearing.
