KARACHI, March 7: The drugs court on Monday acquitted two persons in a case pertaining to manufacturing of substandard medicine for want of evidence.

Dr Shehla and Ziaul Haq of a Lahore-based pharmaceutical company were charged with manufacturing substandard and spurious drugs.

The accused through their lawyer filed acquittal applications under Section 265-A of the criminal procedure code.

The drugs court, comprising Sathi M. Ishaq (chairman) and Dr Nighat Qadri and Dr Saleh Mohammad (members), allowed the plea after hearing both sides.

The court observed that the negligence on the part of the provincial quality control board and government analysts had badly impaired the case of the prosecution as the laboratory/analyses report was submitted after a delay of about four months while under the law it should be submitted within 60 days.

According to the prosecution, a drugs inspector carried out a raid in Hyderabad in September 2002 and allegedly seized subsubstandard and spurious drugs. The accused were booked under the Drugs Act, 1976.

Excise officer, man jailed in graft case

An anti-corruption court on Monday sentenced an excise officer and an individual to two years in prison in a graft case.The court found Ziauddin Pathan of the excise department and Zaman Khan guilty of forging documents in order to take possession of a shop in a Lea Market area in 2006.

The judge of the special anti-corruption court, Karachi, Rashida Asad, pronounced the verdict after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court imposed a fine of Rs20,000 each and ruled that in case of default the convicts would undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

Both the accused were out on bail and appeared in court on Monday and after the pronouncement of the judgment they were taken into custody and sent to prison to serve out the sentence.

According to the prosecution, a woman filed a complaint with the anti-corruption establishment in 2006, stating that the private accused in collusion with the excise officer prepared bogus documents to occupy her father's shop.

A case (FIR No.59/06) was registered against the accused under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act at the anti-corruption establishment police station.