LAHORE: The pharmacists on Monday criticised the Punjab government`s policies regarding their colleagues and the pharmaceutical industry, saying a majority of the companies were shifting their business abroad due to the discriminatory attitude of the provincial authority.
Talking to the media at a local hotel, they said the arrest of the pharmacists, closure of medicine companies and lodging of criminal cases despite availability of drug rules had panicked the community.
`The Punjab government sealed Sharooq pharmaceutical firm despite the fact that the Drug Testing Laboratory (DTL) had passed the samples sent by the authorities to analyse the drugs of the company,` pharmacist Noor Muhammad Mahar said.
Mr Noor alleged that some elements in the government wanted to create space for the `big bosses` in the pharmaceutical industry and for this purpose, they were targeting the pharmaceutical manufacturers. He said the Punjab government functionaries had disqualified a firm for the quality of medicines through London labs despite knowing the fact that they were manufacturingdrugs according to the United States Pharmacopeia (USP).
`The samples passed by the DTL Lahore were manufactured according to the USP but the Punjab government had deliberately sent samples to the LGC Lab London to declare the company disqualified,` Dr Mahar alleged.
He said the government had not only disqualified the company but also sealed it`s all units, arrested its pharmacists and technical managers and lodged criminal cases against its owner.
Mr Mahar said that such unfavourable conditions had already reduced export of medicine in Pakistan by 30 percent. `The criminal actions against the pharmacists and the manufacturers will lead to the destruction of pharmaceutical industry`, he warned.
Mushtaque Chaudhry and Haroon also spoke.
The press conference was organised under the banner of Reformers Pharmacist Association and Health Alliance of Pakistan.
Other pharmacists and office-bearers of the associations, including Dr Atif Raza and Uzair Nagra, were also present. Staff Reporter
