LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has pledged to the nation that strict accountability would be carried out against those responsible for the dozens of deaths that occurred due to the counterfeit medicine given out at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), DawnNews reported.

Speaking to media representatives after inaugurating a polio campaign in Lahore, Sharif said that supplying free drugs to the patients did not mean that those doing so could play with lives.

Pointing his guns towards the federal government, the chief minister urged the media to also hold accountable "the thieves sitting in Islamabad".

He blamed the rulers for the prevailing energy crisis in the country and said that coal and other resources could have been used to deal with the issue.

Sharif moreover questioned as to how could the rulers who failed to deliver in four years do something worthwhile during the next six months.