6 tonnes of expired drugs, food set on fire

JALALABAD (PAN): Nearly six tonnes of expired and low-quality drugs and food items were set on fire in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Thursday, officials said.

More than 120 kinds of spurious medicine and eatables were torched in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, Public Health Director Dr. Baz Mohammad Sherzad told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He estimated the cost of the items, which were seized from medical stores across the province over the past month, at five million afghanis ($107,319).

Thirty-two medical stores were sealed and their owners referred to the prosecutor’s office, the official said, adding the medicine had been smuggled from Turkey, India and Pakistan.

“We can’t prevent the smuggling of such things in the absence of an effective monitoring system at the border with Pakistan,” the public health director said.

Provincial council and National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials, prosecutors and police cooperated with the health department in dealing with the problem, said a member of the provincial council, Abdul Qahar Ludin.

myn/mud

Visits: 0