LAHORE: Majority medical stores kept their shutters down across Punjab on Thursday on the call of the joint action committee of pharmaceutical sector to press for their demands, especially withdrawal of amendments to the Drug Act 2017.

Only medical stores inside state-owned healthcare facilities at Kasur, Okara, Sahiwal, Multan, Vehari, Sadiqabad, Sialkot, Faisalabad and other cities remained open. In Lahore, all the medical stores opposite to Services Hospital remained closed while the shutter down was partial outside Mayo, Ganga Ram and Lahore General hospitals.

A large number of All Pakistan Chemists Association also staged a demonstration outside Lahore Press Club.

Addressing the protesters, joint action committee’s member Hamid Raza said after several rounds of talks with a team comprising senior officers of the Punjab government, a draft was finalised in May last year to undo the amendments in the Drug Act 2017.

“No further action has been taken on it so far. Instead, the government has started enforcing the Act, causing irreparable losses to pharmacists and manufacturers,” he said.

He said the law was enacted without taking on board any of the stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018