LAKANA, July 12: The drug rules of 1979 were amended by the Sindh government in March 2010 without taking into confidence the stakeholders. These amendments had created a host of problems for wholesalers and retailers.

President, Chemists and Druggist Association Larkana, Tarique Nazeer Shaikh told Dawn on Thursday that the amended rules had badly hit the drug trade and people associated with it. He requested President Asif Ali Zardari to help resolve problems of drug traders of Sindh.

These rules have brought at brink employment of hundreds of youths besides generating problems for traders, he complained.

The Association had on April 29, 2012 sent proposals to Health Secretary for inserting it in amendments but without any response.

Unfortunately, the Sindh government did not take into consideration the licence of wholesalers for running the business. There are some 20,000 wholesalers in the province, he said.

Raising licence fee to Rs5,000 from Rs2,000 was unjustified in comparison to Punjab where it was still Rs2,000 while renewal fee here was Rs3,000 against Rs1,000 there, he said.

The B. Pharmacy Council had fixed the fee for dispensers doing refresher training course at Rs15,000 as against Rs1,000 in Punjab. The disparity would likely hit the medicine trade in Sindh as no dispenser would get his licence renewed without undertaking the refresher course, Mr Shaikh said adding new rules required a dealer to obtain two licences, one for retail business and another for trading in sedatives after filling form-9.

The Health Department, he said, was reluctant to renew licences expired on June 12, 2012.