THE country has in recent months been held hostage to a swirling cloud of allegations of corruption involving some of the biggest political players. Has the glare of the spotlight being directed at them tended to obscure other areas where corruption is endemic? From an intelligence report prepared by the police in Punjab recently, it would certainly appear so. The document, the contents of which were published in this newspaper on Tuesday, found that of the 121 drug inspectors working in the province, 64 — roughly half — were allegedly involved in corruption. This means that as a result of bribery and nepotism, fake and expired medicines are being made available in the province. It was found that large numbers of drugs inspectors receive bribes from pharmacies and medical-store owners, and even quacks; in return, they turn a blind eye to the sale of substandard drug products. Some inspectors were found to have been collecting ‘samples’ of pricey medicines from stores on the pretext of getting them analysed, only to sell them to other pharmacies.

Corruption in the ranks of government services cannot come as a surprise in a country where not only is the scourge widespread but where the ability to cut corners also abounds. That said, this particular example of unethical behaviour has highlighted other areas of concern. It was hoped that after the Punjab Institute of Cardiology scandal in 2012, when over 100 patients reportedly died because of the spurious medicine being dispensed to them, some change in the country’s drug regulation practices would become apparent. True, in recent years, there has been a functioning drug regulatory authority in the country. But in reality, it remains a toothless entity, which is evident in its failure to ensure quality control as well as in its inability to purge the market of substandard medicine through stringent checks by inspectors. The Punjab government must clean up its act, and other provincial governments must investigate how far the rot has spread in their own jurisdictions.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2017