ISLAMABAD, Jan 10: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior here on Saturday expressed its alarm when it learnt that after 2001 neither the new health policy was unveiled nor the previous one revised.

Presided over by Senator Talha Mehmood, the committee asked the Ministry of Health to prepare the new health policy at the earliest and ensure its implementation from next month.

The committee also deliberated sale and purchase of spurious, illegal and substandard drugs at medical stores in private and government hospitals across the country.

In his comments, Senator Mehmood informed the participants of the meeting that 40 per cent of the medicines available at different medical stores and hospitals were either sub-standard or spurious.

But, an official of the Ministry of Health maintained that only 0.3 per cent medicines were found spurious. The committee directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to initiate countrywide crackdown in collaboration with Ministry of Health and drug inspectors on the spurious drugs.

A drug inspector from Peshawar informed the committee that he had recently busted a gang which was involved in illegal sales of medicines and alleged that chief minister NWFP was indirectly influencing him to hush up the matter and release the culprits.The committee chairman directed Director General FIA Tariq Khosa to conduct an inquiry into the matter and give a report within two weeks to the committee on the issue.

It also directed the health ministry to bring the manufacturing of homeo and allopathy medicines under the purview of law. The committee expressed its concerns when it came to know during the meeting that there was no legal formality for opening a medical laboratory in Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh and Islamabad. However, the NWFP government has defined legal framework in this regard.

During the deliberations, the health ministry was asked to incorporate legal formalities in new health policy for opening medical laboratories.

The committee was informed of the actions being taken against the manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of spurious drugs and expired medicines by the interior and health ministries and the FIA. It also recommended that the health ministry should control the price variation of medicines in the market.