Three pharma factory owners for 'selling spurious drugs' arrested
24 January, 2012
LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday arrested the owners of three pharmaceutical factories accused of selling spurious medicines at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology after Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik took notice of the issue which has claimed many lives due to reaction of the medicines. FIA officials arrested the aforesaid owners of the pharmaceutical companies, including Waseem Chaudhary, Tahir Azam and Chaudhary Nadir, after registering three cases against them on the complaint of drug inspectors during an inquiry initiated by the FIA on the directions of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. It is pertinent to mention that about two dozen persons in the provincial metropolis have died due to spurious medicines provided by the pharmaceutical factories in the past few days. When contacted, FIA Punjab Director Waqar Haider said the FIA would conduct investigations on merit and anyone found guilty would be dealt with according to the law. He said arrests of some people in this regard were expected during the course of investigation. Earlier, taking notice of the tragedy, Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik had constituted a joint inquiry team under Waqar Haider. Other team members include Federal drug inspector, other FIA officials and any other relevant personnel nominated by the ministry or the FIA director. Rehman Malik also directed joint inquiry team to submit a report within three days, identifying the cause of the incident besides recommendations to prevent a similar incident in the future and legal action against the responsible persons. It is learnt that FIA had also received a letter from the Governorís House in which Punjab governor Sardar Latif Khan Khosa directed Haider to probe the matter regarding the deaths and submit an inquiry report. End.
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