KARACHI: Large quantity of medicines stolen from the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Karachi and Dr. Ruth KM Pfao, Civil Hospital, Karachi, were seized when the National Task Force against Spurious Drugs on Monday raided various shops and warehouses in the notorious ‘Katchi Gali’ and Hussainabad areas of Karachi on Monday.
“The National Task Force against Spurious Drugs of DRAP raided various shops and warehouses in the notorious Katchi Gali in District South and Hussainabad in District Central and seized huge quantity of medicines stolen from the Sindh government’s hospitals. Officials have also seized a large quantity of spurious drugs during these raids,” the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) told The News.
During the raid on the infamous ‘Zeenat Extension’ in the Katchi Gali, thousands of vials of injections, tablets and other medicines stolen from different public hospitals in Sindh were recovered, DRAP chief Asim Rauf said, adding that a large number of spurious drugs were also taken into custody being sent for the lab analysis.
“There were a large number of injectables and oral medicines, which were stamped as ‘Sindh government property; Sale Prohibited’confirming that they were stolen from the public hospitals and sold to traders of Katchi Gali,” the DRAP chief said adding that it was great success of the DRAP officials who reached the culprits behind depriving deserving people of free medicines. “This action was taken following long surveillance and consistent efforts of our officials who spent several months to collect evidence and struck when all the evidence were available. I would appeal to the people to report any such crime to DRAP’s toll-free number 0800-03727,” Asim Rauf said, pledging the identity of the informants would not be disclosed.
The DRAP officials said stolen medicines included costly injections including anesthetics, antibiotics, steroids and other categories of medicines and added that drugs stolen from other healthcare facilities were also recovered during raid. “They carried stamps of institutions where they were supplied and they were not supposed to be sold in the open market. This is a big success for DRAP,” Najam-us-Saqib, Additional Director DRAP, Sindh, said. He said the medicines were recovered from 8 to 9 shops in the Zeenat Extension in the infamous Katchi Gali and a warehouse in Hussainabad. It also included Restane, which is an anaesthetic besides other top of the line antibiotics and other important drugs. “All these drugs and a huge quantity of spurious drugs were confiscated and are now being sent for lab analysis. We are going to lodge criminal cases against those involved in the theft. There is big network involved in it and law enforcement agencies are being taken into confidence to arrest the culprits,” he added.
Commenting on DRAP's action, an official of the Sindh government said some officials in the provincial drug administration and government’s central store ie I.I Depot could be behind the racket of stealing medicines from hospitals and selling them across the country.
