Sindh Assembly session: bill seeks seven-year jail, Rs 0.1 million fine for sellers of gutka, manpuri

During Sindh Assembly session, MPAs belonging to opposition parties on Tuesday raised concerns over the making and sales of counterfeit medicines and also questioned the PPP government's policy against the vendors and importers of spurious medicines. The house also introduced a private bill, which was tabled by PPP's woman lawmaker, Rubina Qaimkhani, to seek an official ban on manufacturing and sales of tobacco-made toxic gutka, as she said the deadly stuff poses a serious threat to adults and children's health.
Similarly, on the private members' day that is held every Tuesday if the assembly is in sitting, the PTI legislator, Khurrum Sher Zaman Khan on a call-attention-notice lamented that the parents are compelled to purchase medicines from markets due to unavailability of needed medicines at children ward in Civil Hospital Karachi. He said that the ward has been overcrowded with minor patients.
"Medicines for patients at the ward also remain unavailable," he said. On a call-attention-notice, MQM's Dewan Chand Chawla said that the fake medicines flooded the markets, which the patients have to buy even at a ten-fold higher price. He said that a "rupees 10 medicine is being sold at rupees 100." He questioned the Sindh government's policy asking if there are any regulations for checking manufacturing and selling of medicines across the markets in the province. "Fake medicines do not heal the disease," said the worried lawmaker.
"A large number of adults and children are addicted to gutka and manpuri, which are extremely deadly to human health," Rubina told the house after a bill, she had tabled, was introduced. She said the numbers of addicts to the tobacco-related lethal stuff are growing on a daily basis that is not only deteriorating human health but also posing a serious threat to human lives. She said gutka and manpuri cause cancer.
Rubina proposed a seven-year jail term and a fine amounting Rs 100,000 for the manufacturers and sellers of the lethal substance. If the bill is adopted as law, the making and sales of gutka will come under a complete ban and will be considered non-bailable crime.
Furthermore, the government members turned down an adjournment motion that blamed the government for not fixing support price for sugarcane and for delays in starting of crushing. The motion came from PML-F's Nusrat Sehar Abbasi. However a similar issue was raised by PML-F's Saeed Khan Nizamani in a private resolution, which the treasury later supported, hesitantly.
The mover said that the delay in sugarcane crushing by mills is a big issue of the province while the treasury is gagging public voices in the house. "Those who had a slogan of food, clothing and shelter are now snatching bread from the growers," he said.
In reply, Sindh Senior Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Nisar Khuhro said that the house had debated the issue several times and asked the opposition to be patient till a meeting, soon to be held, will solve the crisis. Sindh Information Minister, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah rather slammed the opposition for raising the growers' issue in the assembly, saying that the PML-F is a coalition partner in the PML-N led federal government that has failed to fix sugar rates which consequently triggered the problems for farmers in Sindh.
The assembly also passed a resolution, which was moved by PPP's female legislator, Ghazal Siyal, asking the federal government to help dispatch relief goods and assistance to the earthquake victims in Iran and Iraq, immediately. Through the resolution, Sind Assembly expressed solidarity with people of Iran and Iraq on behalf of people of Pakistan in this hour of grief. The lawmakers also expressed grief over the deaths due to quake and condoled with the bereaved families.