LAHORE: Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has announced the establishment of ‘Punjab Forensic Food and Drug Testing Agency’ to help eliminate substandard and adulterated food besides spurious drugs and farm medicines and spray.

The announcement was made at the inauguration of the first international standard drug-testing laboratory of the country in Lahore on Monday. He also visited the laboratory.

The chief minister said that laws would be formulated soon for the food testing agency, which would work as an independent and autonomous institution free from any kind of interference.

He said the drug testing laboratory would begin a new system in the province which would be expanded expeditiously to ensure stern punishment to the elements engaged in adulteration of food items besides those involved in manufacturing and trading spurious drugs and substandard and bogus medicines.

He said the mafia playing with human lives through spurious and substandard medicines would be rooted out.

He said the staff of the lab, recruited through the Punjab Service Commission, had been trained at the LGC Lab of London.

Mr Sharif recalled that in 2010-11 about 100 deaths occurred due to substandard medicines in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology and the Punjab government was being held responsible for this.

But, he said, he had sent samples of these medicines to the London LGC and also to laboratories of France and Geneva while the then PPP government gave these samples to the Federal Drug Testing Laboratory which gave a satisfactory report. The report of LGC, London, whereas revealed that the medicines given to heart patients were for the treatment of malaria. The reports of labs of France and Geneva also endorsed the LGC opinion, which made it clear that the local drug testing lab was a fraud and the people were being hoodwinked.

He said that instead of awarding punishment to the elements involved in the heinous trade of spurious medicines, efforts were made to save them.

He said such situation prompted the provincial government to set up a latest drug testing lab in Punjab.

The chief minister saw the corrupt elements of government departments in collusion with the mafia producing substandard and spurious drugs to oppose the establishment of a modern drug testing laboratory.

He said that the lab building had been constructed back in 1970 and it tested 30,000 samples of medicines during the period, an uphill task, as in Britain, only 2,000 drug samples were tested during the time.

“It was a fraud for earning money through illegal means and I cannot allow this practice to continue.”