Supreme Court directs Punjab government to reinstate PIC doctors

The Supreme Court on Friday directed Punjab government to reinstate the doctors, suspended after spurious drugs killed a very large number of patients in a public sector hospital in Lahore, saying nobody can be suspended unless responsibility is fixed.
The provincial government had constituted a committee, headed by Deputy Inspector General Police, Punjab Zulfiqar Cheema, which was probing the incident, and Lahore High Court was also investigating the matter. A three-member bench headed by Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani took up a suo moto case regarding death of patients in Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) after taking spurious drugs.
Advocate-general Punjab Ashtar Ausaf told the bench that taking note, the Punjab government had immediately taken action against the concerned doctors. This prompted Justice Saqib Nisar to say that why Punjab government is always in haste. Suspending a person without show cause notice was illegal, he said, adding that why the doctors were not issued show cause notices before suspension.
The Advocate-general told the bench that on account of several deaths of patients at PIC, the authority had suspended Medical Superintendent Dr Jaffer Saleem, Deputy Medical Superintendent (store) Dr Syed Ali Hassan, Director Drug Testing Laboratory Abdus Salam Mufti, Store Keeper (medicine) Zufiqar Ali and Pharmmacist of OPD Muhammad Yousuf Ausaf said that a notice was not issued to them and they were suspended right after the PIC incident, which claimed several precious lives.