PESHAWAR, March 6: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) to register a criminal case against all officials involved in alleged purchase of substandard HCV (hepatitis-C virus) curing injections worth billions of rupees.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Mrs Irshad Qaiser issued the directives when ACE director Fayyaz Ali Shah informed the bench that the laboratory tests showing the said injection as genuine were forged and the laboratory concerned had shown ignorance about conducting any such tests.

The bench directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and deputy inspectors general of police (DIG) of different regions to extend support to the ACE so as to nab the culprits. The chief justice observed that this was a test case for the court and they would set an example by providing exemplary punishment to the perpetrators irrespective of how influential they were. The bench fixed March 13 for next hearing.

The bench ordered the director to take into possession the entire record related to patients suffering from HCV and undergoing its treatment through the government-sponsored programme. It ordered that details should also be collected about such patients who expired during the period since the controversial injections were made available for administering to them.

The chief justice observed that if it was found that any death had occurred because of this substandard injection then cases would be registered against the officials concerned of health department as well as owners of the pharmaceutical company. He said that all responsible persons in this scandal would be taken to task and in future no pharmaceutical company would dare to manufacture sub-standard medicines.

The chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the issue over news reports concerning purchase of 1.6 million vials of Interferon injection (an HCV curing injection) by the health department despite complaints about its quality. The reports had claimed that despite initial test which proved that the injections were substandard the health department went ahead with the purchase after the pharmaceutical company concerned produced another test report showing the injection as accurate.

Earlier, the director stated that on inspection they found that only around 500,000 vials of the said injections were available in government stores whereas rest of around 1.18 million vials had been missing. He said that they were told that 100,000 vials were sent to Mardan district, but as the health department had no proper storage capacity there, the same were returned to the company. However, no proper record was available.

The official said that the company was made the entire payment in June 2012 despite objections over the standard of the injection. He said that they would include certain high-ups in the inquiry for which the ACE needed the permission of the chief secretary. He requested the bench to allow him five days so that he could submit a complete report.

The bench allowed an application filed by the pharmaceutical company concerned and included it as respondent in the case. A counsel appearing for the company requested the court to order re-examination of the injection as these were not substandard. However, the bench observed that his plea would be heard on next date.