LAHORE: Supreme Court Justice Saqib Nisar has said that there was a system of imperialism prevalent in Punjab and the provincial government did not care about the courts’ decisions.
Justice Saqib Nisar gave these remarks while hearing the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) medicines reaction case on Monday. A bench of the apex court conducted suo motu hearing of the PIC drugs at the SC Lahore Registry. He said like emperors, the provincial government issued notifications regarding sacking of officials. He said courts talked about the law, but the governments did not follow the decisions. He said that violation of law and constitution would not be tolerated further. The SC bench also issued notice to the provincial government on a plea by former chief of PIC Dr Azhar.
In his petition, Dr Azhar was of the view that he was sacked and the Punjab government’s claims about his resignation were not true.The bench ruled that if the role of any pharmaceuticals was proven in deaths of patients at PIC caused by spurious medicine, the court would determine the compensation which the company would have to pay to the bereaved families. The chief executive officer of a pharmaceutical company, Muhammad Abdullah Feroze, appeared before the SC and informed it that his factory was closed after the issue was raised by the media.
He said all 15 concerned staffers of the company had joined investigation and so far the involvement of his company had not been established, as investigation was underway.Justice Jilani asked him if he was ready to pay the compensation to the families in case the role of his company was established in the incident. Feroze’s counsel replied that the Punjab government had announced compensation for them. The judge said in case the role of his company was established, the court would not let him adopt the conventional law for compensation, rather it would invoke its power to issue him direction to pay the compensation which it would fix itself. Later, the court adjourned the hearing until March 16. – PT
