LAHORE, Nov 5: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has ordered constitution of three special task forces, beside establishment of nine drug courts for checking business of spurious medicines.

He issued the orders here on Wednesday while presiding over a meeting held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat to chalk out strategy to check spurious medicines, eradicate polio and dengue fever and improvement of health sector.

According to a handout issued here on Wednesday, he also ordered the health department to launch a comprehensive campaign against spurious medicines.

Besides, he formed a three-member committee for eradicating polio and dengue fever as well as reviewing the causes of outbreak of these diseases. The committee will also review the occurrence of polio cases despite administration of vaccine to the children in the province, besides fixing the responsibility of any negligence in this regard.

The meeting which lasted for more than four hours was also attended by MPAs Salman Rafique, Dr Asad Ashraf, Dr Saeed Elahi, Dr Tahir Javed, Dr Farrukh Javed, secretaries of health, law and prosecution departments, Director General Health Services Dr Amir Aziz and Dr Nadeem-ud-Din Mian and other concerned officers.

Addressing the meeting, the chief minister said the three special task forces were being established in northren, southern and central Punjab for checking spurious drugs. He said of the nine drug courts, three each would work along every task force.

He also constituted a committee for eliminating quackery and reviewing the standard of Unani, homoeopathic and ayurvedic medicines.

Deploring surfacing of 28 polio cases this year in the province, he constituted a committee headed by Dr Tahir Javed to point out any negligence on the part of polio immunisation staff in this regard.