NAWABSHAH, Oct 6: An anti-corruption team in a raid on a drug store of the People's Medical College Hospital on Wednesday recovered 145 anaesthesia medicine bottles filled with water. The seized bottles were sent for a laboratory test.

The raid was conducted following the complaints of complications due to anaesthesia during the operations in the hospital. The circle officer of the anti-corruption, Khalid Nizamani, and the civil judge and judicial magistrate, Suhail Pervez Qureshi, raided the drug store of the PMC hospital and recovered the bottles costing Rs145 per bottle.

The circle officer said the raid was conducted in the light of complaints received by the deputy director anti-corruption, Sukkur, which said that these bottles were filled with water and patients lying on the operation theatre table were facing problems due to use of those drugs.

The medical superintendent of the PMC Hospital, Dr Mahfooz Qureshi said that 200 bottles of this drug were purchased from a supplier on Aug 10, 2004. He said that 55 bottles from the lot had already been used while the doctors using this medicine in the operation theatre complained that the drug has no specific odour.

The circle officer said they had recorded the statements of two suppliers Razaq Arain and Shabbir Memon of the said drug and both stated that they purchased these bottles from a Pathan of Pindi and who had no name and address. Further investigation is in progress. -APP