KARACHI: After recovery of a huge quantity of medicines from the city’s wholesale and retail markets which had been stolen from government hospitals, the federal and provincial authorities on Tuesday launched investigations into the matter.

Administrations of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) and Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi also initiated internal inquiries after the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) officials claimed that medicines stolen from these health facilities had been seized during raids and that the medicines had clearly been stamped with ‘Sindh government property’ and ‘NICVD’.

They, however, claimed that theft of medicines from their health facilities was “not possible”.

Meanwhile, the Sindh health department also decided to launch a criminal investigation into the scandal and the provincial health secretary was asked to approach the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) for investigation into the crime while he was also asked to initiate inquiry on the departmental level to expose the elements that were depriving people of free medicines.

On the other hand, the NICVD and the CHK managements formed separate inquiry committees on Tuesday to probe into the alleged theft of medicines from their drug stores, but added that due to strict monitoring and system of surveillance, theft of medicines from their systems was not possible.

“I have recently assumed charge of CHK and taken measures to stop all kinds of pilferage,” said Dr Akram Sultan, Medical Super­intendent of the CHK and added: “I have constituted an inquiry committee comprising two senior assistant medical superintendants and another official to probe into the theft reports and present its report within a week’s time.”

Announcing inquiry into the allegations, officials at the NICVD said stamp found on the recovered medicines was not the one they used to mark their medicines, but added that their committee would check the batch numbers and invoices to ascertain if those medicines belong to NICVD or not.

A Sindh government source, meanwhile, confirmed that that four provincial and federal investigation agencies — the Sindh police, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) — were already separately investigating several complaints against drug inspectors but now they had decided to cooperate with each other to bring them before the law for their connivance with criminals, especially those playing with lives of people.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2021