A number of kiosks and make-shift shops at Karkharno bazaar, Peshawar, are selling unregistered and spurious drugs available in various packaging: tablets, capsules and lotions. Teenage boys are used as sale clerks who sit at the counter, where besides illegal medicines Pashto CDs and DVDs are also available.

According to medical experts unregistered drugs can cause heart failure, kidney and liver and have serious social implications.

Most of these spurious drugs are libido related and claim to increase potency and infertility.

According to locals it has become a lucrative business where hundreds of school and college going students — male and female — buy it. Prices range from Rs 300 to Rs6,000.

According to a local, dealers hire young boys, with good bargaining skills, to attract customers. The hired staff is adept at striking deals and don’t have inhibitions discussing the affect of these drugs.

Horrifyingly, the young staffers — some between the ages of five and six — have been trained to explain the details of the spurious drugs to buyers.

The real dealers behind the scene and in some cases parents of the teenage staff members keep an eye out for the media and the police and are always ready to threaten or apply graft as the situation demands.

“It is a lucrative business, dealers import Viagra and a large number of other types of unregistered drugs and medicines from Iran, India and China, smuggling these products via Afghanistan into Pakistan.  People of all age groups use Viagra and other drugs," said Rahmat Ali Afridi, a local resident.

In addition to Karkhano bazaar, Peepal Mandi in Peshawar is famous for illegal business of unregistered drugs and medicines, while several quacks in and around the city deal in steroids. There are also about 8,000 registered medical stores and herbal stores in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), out of which 2,200 are in Peshawar.

The illegal drugs /medicines including Viagra and other dangerous types of steroids are available at most of these stores, said the local resident.

“The main source is however a market at Karkhano bazaar, where about 60 shops are operating. Like many other evils, fake medicine business is also controlled by a mafia,” the local resident added.

“Officials of KP Health Department are also involved in the ugly business.  Whenever an action is taken against any business, the concerned authorities promptly come into action and threaten the perpetrator (official) with termination, transfer or demotion to a lower rank.  I have conducted several raids at medicine stores and herbal stores but after each raid I receive phone calls from senior officials to call off the operation,” a senior official in the KP health department, while requesting anonymity revealed.

“There should be an independent Drugs Court in KP on the patterns that exist in other provinces,” he suggested.

Dr Muzafar Iqbal the only US returned Sexologist in KP said that spurious drugs used for sexual purposes were available in abundance and could cause heart, kidney and liver failure.

Dr Iqbal was of the opinion that the Government of Pakistan should either issue manufacturing or import licences to investors, adding that 15 per cent of his patients — mostly youngsters — were found with no symptoms of sex related ailments.

“Most people are misguided and suffer from mere misconceptions about sexual infertility,” he said.

Dr Iqbal said that sex does not have any link with the central nervous system, it is an autonomic process.  It is important to know because patients who are suffering from mental stress and skin diseases often consult either psychiatrists or dermatologists, it is there that they get the wrong advice, he explained.

Overdose of steroids, results in mental stress and can cause multiple health complications.  A few years ago, a mentally disturbed patient in Mardan killed a dermatologist for prescribing him a medicine which allegedly made him impotent, instead of increasing his sexual potency.

The doctor said that the alleged impotency sometimes resulted in serious social problems.

A number of products curing infertility and sex related ailments were available in the whole world, ban on their manufacturing or import is not going to address the issue, he stressed.

Sabir Ali Chief Drugs Inspector in KP, said: “A year and half ago a raid was conducted at a market in Karkhano bazaar, 25 shops were sealed and four FIRs were registered against the illegal dealers, while two containers of unregistered and spurious drugs and medicines worth million of rupees were also recovered from secret hideouts.    But the court awarded bail to the dealers, even though their consignment of illegal drugs is still in official custody.”

“I am aware of the kiosks and stalls ranging from 10 to 15 in number as EDO (Health) Peshawar has recently received a compliant from local residents. I have ordered stern action against the culprits,” said Sabir Ali.