ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: The Senate special committee that met for the first time on Thursday to deliberate establishment of a drug regulatory authority (DRA) made little headway and decided to refer the matter to Senators Raza Rabbani, Wasim Sajjad and S.M. Zaffar for legal opinion.

The committee that included members from all five provinces argued over the federal government's legal right to set up DRA but was contradicted by the Cabinet Division as well as Law Division representatives.

Annoyed and frustrated, Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan along with other members alleged that the Cabinet Division was reluctant to give control of the DRA issue.

“The hurdles and barriers are because of the bureaucracy,” Senator Abdul Raziq echoed along similar lines. He was the first to suggest consulting senators with legal knowledge over the establishment of DRA under the federal government.

The decision to form the committee was announced by Senate deputy chairman Jan Mohammad Jamali after senators belonging to almost all the political parties termed the government's decision of allocating functions of the proposed DRA to Cabinet Division a “violation of constitution” and against the spirit of the provincial autonomy.

The issue came under discussion in the upper house when 26 senators through a call attention notice criticised the federal government for delay in the formation of the proposed authority, causing difficulties in provinces as far as the issues of registration and licensing of medicines were concerned. The committee had been tasked to do its job within 45 days.

The representative from the Law Division informed the senators that until provincial assemblies passed resolutions required under the 18th amendment, the federal government was not authorised to formulate the DRA law. Nonetheless, health secretaries from all provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan except Punjab were unanimously of the view that the federal government should take the initiative.