LAHORE: Shutterdown strike of medical stores against the Drug Act 2017 across the province entered the third day on Saturday.
While patients suffered due to the closure of several stores on the call for protest by the All Pakistan Chemists and Drugs Association in the provincial capital as well as other cities across Punjab, no call for negotiations has been announced by the government in this regard as yet.
On Wednesday, Chemists’ Association Joint Action Committee Chairman Hamid Raza had said, “All factories and medical stores would remain closed and the protest would continue till the withdrawal of the amendment made in the 1976 Drugs Act. If the government fails to resolve their issues, they would take to roads along with their families,” he had said while addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club.
It is pertinent to note that according to the amendments to the Drugs Act, sellers of substandard medicines would be sentenced to five years in prison with a Rs1 million fine, sellers of fake medicine would undergo a five-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs50 million, while those found selling medicines without a license would get 10 years in jail besides a fine of Rs100 million.