PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday temporarily stopped provincial health department from procurement of certain lifesaving medicines from a pharmaceutical firm allegedly involved in provision of spurious drugs in the past in other provinces.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad issued notices to respondents including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and health secretary, seeking their response to a petition challenging non-inclusion of a clause in the standard bidding document (SBD) pertaining to spurious drugs by the competing pharmaceutical companies.

The petition was filed by a resident of Swabi district named Waqar Ahmad, requesting the court to declare as illegal and against the fundamental rights of the citizens the omission/non-inclusion of the clause in SDB 2024-25, which provided not to allow any company that had been reported in past for provision of spurious/adulterated drugs.

The petitioner requested the court to restrain the procurement entity from entering into any type of contract agreement with the said company in respect of procurements under SBD 2024-25 without having provided with a clear undertaking about non-supply of spurious drugs.

Issues notices to KP chief secretary and health secretary

The petitioner claimed that it was clearly established that from the very inception in order to make the said company to get succeeded in the bidding process, the clause pertaining to spurious drugs had purposely been omitted from SBD 2024-25.

The respondents in the petition are KP chief secretary, health secretary, director general health services and drug control and pharmacy services, government medicine coordination cell and the said pharmaceutical company.

Advocate Shumail Ahmad Butt appeared for the petitioner and stated that the respondents had in Oct 2024 recommended the company for provision of 26 items.

He said that to make procurements of lifesaving drugs for poor people of the province as per MCC 2024-25, the respondents floated an advertisement to seek bids for procurement of medicines, medical and surgical disposables, etc from manufactures or importers of drugs.

He stated that the respondents also provided the SBD uploaded to the official website of the health department.

He said when the petitioner perused the SBD, it was noted that the respondent No.3 (DG drug control) in connivance with other respondents purposely removed a very important clause contained in Bid Form-III to be obtained from the participating bidder.

He said that the clause required the bidder to undertake and declare that it had not manufactured/supplied any batch of medicines, drugs, medical devices, surgical disposable and related goods being declared as spurious/adulterated by the Drug Testing Laboratory Khyber Pakhtunkhwa or any other public DTL in Pakistan.

Mr Butt claimed that such clauses had the effect of a total knock-out for such suppliers, who had ever been found supplying spurious or adulterated drugs.

He contended that previously the SBDs contained that clause and was considered to be an integral and inseparable condition to be fulfilled by the bidders as the same pertained to safeguard the lives of poor patients across the province.

He argued that the said company had also been allowed to take part in the bidding process despite the fact that it had remained involved in supply of spurious, adulterated and substandard drugs in other provinces such as Punjab.

The counsel said that provincial governments in other three provinces had banned the said company from taking part in any bidding process.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2025