Hundreds of illegal medical stores are operating throughout the city with the nexus of health department and drug inspectors while a number of such stores are rising day by day due to poor monitoring system of concerned department officials.
An official of the health department, seeking anonymity, said thousands of illegal medical stores had been opened in various areas of the city without any permission and license with the nexus of health department and drug inspectors. He said counterfeit drugs and poor quality expiry medicines were being sold at these medical stores through non-qualified staff due to which people were contracting different diseases due to side effects of these drugs.
The official said majority of those illegal medical stores was operating in suburban areas of the city. He said there was acute shortage of drug inspectors in the city and resultantly, inspectors were unable to monitor the illegal medical stores across the city. He said drug inspectors were not working under the supervision of provincial health department. He said illegal medical stores were operating in different areas of the city without any proper check and balance due to poor monitoring system. He said illegal medical stores were operating with nexus of some health officers and drug inspectors.
Chief Drug Inspector Qaisar Muhammad said: “We are facing acute shortage of staff and also facing resistance in suburban areas of Karachi.” He said if the shortage of staff and security provided to them, then surely situation would improve in future.
He said the director health and town health officers were responsible to action if any illegal medical store operates along with clinic of doctor anywhere in the city. Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), Center, central leader Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad said there was no proper mechanism introduced by government to register and monitor the medical stores. He said unfortunately irrelevant people were dealing medical stores in the province or in Karachi.
He said medical stores should be run through qualified pharmacists and irreverent people must not be allowed to play with peoples’ lives and health. Wholesale Chemist Council of Pakistan (WCCP) President Atif Billo said if any medical store was running without license anywhere in the city, it must be sealed on earliest. He said the WCCP opposed all illegal medical stores running any part of city without permission or license.
He urged the government and the law enforcement agencies to take action against all big registered medical stores which were illegally selling un-registered drugs.
