A court in Quetta Thursday issued arrest warrants against owners of two pharmaceutical companies and six medical stores for selling counterfeit drugs.

Judge Abdul Majeed Nasar issued the arrest warrants in a case filed by the Balochistan Quality Control Board

The counterfeit drugs were being sold in Quetta and other parts of the province.

The court has also summoned 25 medical store owners on February 25 with regard to selling fake and counterfeit drugs.

Medical stores in Quetta are awash with substandard and counterfeit drugs, claims Dr. Imdadullah, secretary of the board.

"Around 80 per cent of medicines in Quetta are not up to the standard", he told DawnNews.

The drug quality control has recently sealed off 33 medical stores due tothe sale of fake drugs, whereas the number of medical stores in Quetta stands at 1600, Dr. Imdadullah said.

"We have sent 109 cases of fake drugs to the drug court", he added.

Balochistan's health department has deputed 14 drug inspectors in Quetta and one each in all districts of the province. However, the number of pharmacists across the province is around 450, sources in health department told DawnNews.

The secretary drug control said that 10 pharmaceutical companies failed to appear before the board, despite repeated notices.

"It means these pharmaceutical companies are just existing on paper", Dr. Imdadullah said.

The provincial government allocated Rs17.36 billion for health sector during the outgoing financial year, out of which 1.57 billion rupees had been allocated for provision of free medicines to the deserving and needy patients.