ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday vowed to probe the faulty test reports by local laboratories in the spurious drugs case, DawnNews reported.

Speaking at a National Assembly session, Malik informed the house about adding names of owners of the involved pharmaceutical companies in the Exit Control List (ECL).

On Wednesday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had told the media that a British laboratory had found 50mg of an anti-malarial agent in Isotab produced by Efroze Chemicals in Karachi.

According to Sharif, local laboratories from Karachi to Peshawar had declared the suspected medicines usable.

The suspected drugs’ reaction claimed lives of another eight patients on Thursday, raising the death toll to 127 in Punjab.

Malik said that he has ordered an investigation to find out whether the Pakistani laboratories were not properly equipped for conducting such tests or if someone had directed them to produce these reports.

The minister said that all substandard medicines had been confiscated from Punjab and then from Karachi, adding that he has also directed all medical stores to not issue medicines without prescription.