CHITRAL, Sept 9: The sale of substandard and spurious medicines is on the rise in the city and other towns of the district owing to the absence of a drug inspector.

The medical store owners keep the shutters of their shops down when their is a news about the visit of a drug inspector from Mingora, Swat, and evades the inspection.

The post of the drug inspector in the city is vacant and the Mingora drug inspector has to cover the region, who hardly visits the city once or twice a year giving much room to the drug dealers for the sale of substandard and spurious medicines.

The chemists here also charge people the 15 per cent GST earlier levied on life saving drugs but was revised by the government recently.

It was witnessed that the drug dealers are again keeping the shutters down for the last many days as the Mingora drug inspector is on a visit. Social circles of the city have asked the high-ups of the health department to take immediate steps and relieve the people of the menace.