Supreme Court of Pakistan. – File Photo

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court allowed a tribunal of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday to continue its investigation into the death of over 110 cardiac patients in Lahore as a result of reaction to some drugs, but asked the Punjab government and FIA to submit reports on the tragedy.

A three-judge SC bench comprising Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken up a suo motu notice of the deaths of patients under treatment in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC).

Advocate General of Punjab Ashtar Ausaf Ali informed the court that an inquiry committee set up by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif stopped functioning after the appointment of a tribunal by the LHC chief justice at the request of the provincial government.

The committee comprising Najam Saeed, chairman of the chief minister’s inspection team, and seven professors of different medical colleges noted in its initial report that certain consignments of drugs had been received by the PIC at certain stages but these had been returned and never consumed.

The inquiry tribunal will ascertain the cause of deaths and determine if these had anything to do with the drugs procured from the PIC and administered to the patients.

It will fix responsibility and also recommend measures for averting such tragic incidents in future.

Mr Ausaf said no doctor or owner of any pharmaceutical company had been arrested on the directives of the Punjab government.

He said samples of the drugs had been sent to Switzerland, Belgium and England for tests because no such facility was available in Pakistan. “We are waiting for results from these countries,” he added.

When the advocate general said the chief minister headed the health ministry, the court observed that the provincial government had not taken the crisis seriously.

FIA’s Director Legal Muhammad Azam Khan informed the court that cases had been registered against owners of three pharmaceutical companies — Chaudhry Muhammad Waseem, Chaudhry Nadir Khan and Dr M Tahir Azam — on the complaint of federal drug inspector under sections 23 and 27 of the Drugs Act, 1976.

They had been arrested, he added.

Mr Azam said an inquiry team had been constituted by the interior ministry.

He assured the court that except Chaudhry Waseem, the owner of the company manufacturing drugs without a valid licence, the other two would be released on furnishing personal bonds.