ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Saturday directed the attorney general to submit an audit report regarding the supply of substandard stents to cardiac patients, within a week.
The hearing of the suo motu case was resumed by a three-member bench led by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar.
During the last hearing, the CJP said that he had read some reports that stated that Dr Samar had received a large sum of Rs350 million from the government in 2004 to start local production of coronary stents.
The CJP observed that the local production of cardiac stents never took place in the country even after the funds for this purpose were released by the government. The top court summoned the scientist to appear for hearing on February 3 and also sought a reply from the federal government in this connection.
During the proceeding, the CJP had said, “When would we hear the good news that Pakistan has become self-reliant in the production of coronary stents.” The bench was also informed that a locally manufactured stent would be sold for Rs 15,000 to benefit poor patients.The court will resume hearing the case at 4 pm.
A coronary stent is a tube-shaped device placed in the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart, to keep the arteries open in the treatment of coronary heart disease.