Islamabad: There is only one drug inspector in the federal capital to keep an eye on over 500 medical stores located in both urban and rural areas of the city and check the sale of spurious and unregistered drugs, it has been learnt.
According to leading Pakistan English news paper Dawn “a source in the Interior Ministry said authorities in the ministry were ignorant of the much-needed posts in the health sector.”
Since 1980, he added, the strength of drug inspectors has not been increased. He said currently the city with a population of about 1.7 million needed at least six inspectors to ensure sale of registered drugs.
“Since the ‘80s, drug inspection has been managed by the local administration on an ad hoc basis,” said the source, adding the first posting was made in 1990.
He said during all those years hardly a few medical stores were sealed for selling spurious or unregistered drugs.
“The department failed to make any major change till 2008, as record shows that only 30 medical stores were closed for selling unregistered drugs.” The ICT administration has no drug testing laboratory or any registration body for pharmacists and pharmacy council.
The council is a forum to look after the concerns of pharmacists while the registration body issues licences to pharmacists.
The drug inspector sends his collected samples to Lahore for checking its quality. The source added that even the Supreme Court had directed the ministry to create additional posts of drug inspectors and chief drug inspector, so they could easily manage the key health-related issue.
“The drug inspection unit of the ICT is not only understaffed but it has no logistical support. Besides, it’s difficult for a single individual to check the quality of drugs on a routine basis in medical stores located in different areas,” said the source.
When contacted, a senior official of the ICT administration insisted that they had already sent a proposal to the Interior Ministry for creating more posts of drug inspector.
He said in a recent meeting at the ministry, the matter was taken up by the ICT administration and the ministry raised the matter with the establishment and finance divisions.
“We are hopeful that we will soon have the services of three to four drug inspectors to look after the important drug-related concerns,” said the official.Regarding the drug testing laboratory, the official said: “There is a need for such a facility but we require around Rs20 million for its establishment.” He said PC-I in this regard was being prepared and would be sent to the Interior Ministry.
The official claimed that despite under staffing at the drug inspection wing, their officials were still performing better and had made significant improvement in containing the sale of spurious drugs.
During the last one year, he said, the administration generated Rs700,000 by imposing fines on drug stores.
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