A single bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) comprising Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui on Friday reserved the judgement in the high profile hepatitis case in which Sindh Health Department was alleged to have colluded with multinational pharmaceutical companies to procure medicine at very high cost, causing great losses to public exchequer and interest of poor hepatitis patients.
The stay order passed on first hearing continued throughout the proceedings. The court has already rejected the plea of the Sindh Health Department for partial purchase of medicines. On Friday, Faisal Siddiqui, advocate for the plaintiff (one of the national bidders in the tender), submitted his rebuttal to arguments of defendants, including two multinational companies, their distributor and provincial health authorities.
After conducting various hearing on priority and expeditious basis, the SHC reserved its judgement in the matter to be announced later. It may be recalled that a local pharmaceuticals had approached the SHC after their bids were rejected by the Program Manager of Hepatitis Control Program in Sindh. One of their claims before the court was that the entire procurement procedure was not transparent and fair as provided under the Sindh Procurement Rules.
The local pharmaceutical companies challenged the decision pleading that many leading health institutions have been purchasing and using these medicines, besides they have been awarded tenders by the government of Balochistan, government of AJK and others without any complaints.
What is the purpose of the Drug Regulatory Authority which gives licenses, after conducting various testing on the safety and efficacy of drugs, to manufactures for producing medicines and why are local manufactures allowed to export their products when on the other hand the same medicines are not being considered by the Sindh government for alleged quality reasons.-PR
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