LAHORE, April 26: The City District Government Lahore’s top management has expressed its ignorance about the health department’s campaign against spurious and substandard drugs launched all over the province over a week ago.

Talking to Dawn, DCO Mian Muhammad Ijaz said the health department had not coordinated the campaign at districts level properly. “I came to know about the campaign through press reports,” he said.

The DCO said a special campaign should not be treated as a routine matter but launched after an exhaustive planning. Mr Ijaz said he had planned to call a review meeting about the campaign in the district on Monday next.

When contacted, Punjab Health Minister Dr Tahir Ali Javed said the department was coordinating with the EDOs at districts level. He said the health department would also take the DCOs into confidence as well to ensure success of the drive.

The minister said the department had given 14-day time to respective EDOs (health) to finalise arrangements for the proper launching of the campaign from next week.

It may be mentioned here that the health department has constituted a provincial committee convened by the Punjab Director-General Health Services while the district committees comprise the health DOs, District Quality Control Board (DQCB) secretary and area drug inspectors. It may co-opt any member or assistance from the district administration.

The campaign aims at ensuring eradication of spurious and substandard drugs from the market in particular and improvement of drug sale outlets in general for supply of quality medicines to public and health institutions all over the province.

The district committees will also check the sale and purchase record of licence holders and advise them for keeping the record of warranty for purchase of all health products. These committees will also collect samples of health products suspected to be in contravention of Drugs Act 1976 and rules framed there under.

As the Punjab Medical Faculty has detected that around 42,000 fake paramedical diplomas have been issued over the years, the district committees have also been given a task to check the record of qualified people at drug sale outlets for screening of licences obtained on fake or duplicate documents and report to the licencing authority for appropriate action.

The committees will be required to complete the assignment of screening of all outlets within three months and submit report to the provincial committee indicating the name and addresses of those, who are not complying with the provisions of the Drugs Act 1976 on fortnightly basis.