DERA GHAZI KHAN/SARGODHA

Owners of medical stores and traders dealing in wholesale medicine business observed shutter-down against Drugs (Amended) Ordinance 2015 on Wednesday.
Call for the strike was given by the Druggist and Chemist Association to press the government withdraw what “they called” discriminatory law.
In DG Khan, medical store owners and wholesalers observed shutdown for four hours in the morning across the district to protest against the “unethical behaviour of the district health department and drug inspectors in the name of Drugs (Amended) Ordinance 2015.
President Druggist and Chemist Association DG Khan, Sheikh Naqeeb Ahmed told The Nation said that they are not against the new policy of the Punjab Government regarding spurious drugs. “Our protest is against the enforcement of new Punjab Drug policy under amendments to Drugs Act 1976 that will deprive thousands of people of their livelihood,” he pointed out, adding that medical stores owners and medicine wholesalers are treated like criminals by drug inspectors during inspection of medical stores in the presence of police.
He said that today, more than 250 owners of medical stores have downed shutter their shops in at Taunsa, Shahdan Lund, Shah Saddruddin, Peer Adil, Kot Chutta and Chotti Zareen. Similarly 133 medical storekeepers observed strike call in DG Khan city and staged a demonstration against the health authorities.
In Sargodha, the Chemist and Druggist Association observed strike against the Drugs (Amended) Ordinance 2015 and demanded the Punjab government to withdraw the ‘illegal’ ordinance.
A rally took out by medical store owners which reached outside the press club. Chemist and Druggist Association Chairman Imran Javed, Senior Vice President Qamar Munir Butt and General Secretary Arshad Mehmood addressed the protestors and said that chemists were being harassed despite having licences in the name of Punjab Drugs amended ordinance.
REVENUE OFFICIALS STRIKE: The Revenue Department staff all tehsils of the district, except Sargodha Tehsil, observed strike for the second consecutive day against the misconduct of MPA with Assistant Commissioner Kotmoman. The protestors demanded prompt legal action against the MPA and his followers. On the other hand, the district and divisional administrations are still unmoved about the strike which has caused many problems for the common man.