April 19, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

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LARKANA, April 18: The Chemists and Druggists Association of Larkana closed their shops for two hours and took out a procession on Tuesday in protest against the district drug inspector accusing him of blackmailing them and demanding bribe.

Association president Abdul Razzak Shaikh, Mohammed Hanif and Riaz Shaikh led the procession that after marching on the roads of the city, turned into a rally in front of the local press club.

Mr Razzak accused Drug Inspector Ghulam Ali Lakho of extracting money from medical stores and conducting raids to create harassment on the pretext of checking sale of spurious drugs.

The inspector had collected Rs1 million from chemists, he claimed and demanded an inquiry against the official and recovery of the amount.

When Dawn contacted the inspector, he said 8-10 druggists were involved in the sale of sub-standard and spurious medicines manufactured in Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi.

The illegal medicines were on sale in Dadu, Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot and Shikarpur districts, the inspector said.

However, the association president disputed the claim, saying that the drug inspector always carried two cartons of illegal medicines in his car and used them against chemists for registering cases.

He said the inspector had collected Rs600, 000 drugs from New Larkana Medicos on the pretext of seizing sub-standard medicines, but had later sold them.

The drug inspector said the chemists’ body had turned against him after a raid on the KTN Medicos.