PESHAWAR, May 30: The Pakistan Chemists and Druggists Association (PCDA), Peshawar, would observe a shutter-down strike on Saturday to press the government to withdraw the general sales tax on medicines, association’s office-bearers told Dawn here on Thursday.

“We can’t wait any longer. The government is using delaying tactics for withdrawal of the GST on medicines that was imposed on March 20. Since then, the chemists have been trying to force the government to withdraw the tax through peaceful manners,” said PCDA President Arbab Javid Ahmed.

The chemists, he said, wanted to avoid strikes and solve the matter amicably at a time when the country was on the verge of a war with India, but officials of the health department were misleading the government by giving it what he called wrong information. An emergency cover, he added, would be given during the strike for the sake of the patients.

Mr Arbab said the chemists had deferred their protest campaign after they had been assured by the federal finance minister that the GST would be withdrawn after the referendum, but, he lamented, the government had not kept its words.

PCDA Senior Vice-President Abdul Hadi Khan said 65,000 chemists in the country were fed up with the drug-pricing policy of the government.

He announced that the druggists would observe hunger strikes throughout the country if the GST on medicines was not withdrawn.—AY