ISLAMABAD The Senate Standing Committee on Health has recommended for expanding the scope as well as administrative jurisdiction of National Institute of Health (NIH) along with seeking a detailed report from the institution about theft of a container of vaccines from its cold store. The vaccine was the property of the Governments national programme for anti-hepatitis and was kept stored in the cold store of NIH when the incident took place. But shockingly, the NIH as well as managers of the anti-hepatitis programme could neither recover the money nor trace the culprits. It has raised suspicion that the security guards of NIH were deployed there and the cold store had only two keys, one in the possession of NIH and other with the programme managers. The Senate Committee that met under the chairmanship of Senator Perveen Baloch in the Parliament House on Wednesday sought a complete report from the officials concerned. The Committee also observed that only Islamabad Capital Territory fell under the jurisdiction of NIH regarding the food control and checking of adulteration adding that the amendments should be made in the Food Control Act, 1960 and the institutes administrative control should be expanded through out the country. The Committee also discussed the expansion of the administrative powers of Ministry of Health to have its control over the manufacturers of the herbal medicines. The legislators viewed that the manufacturers of herbal medicines were fleecing the innocent masses at the expense of their health but the Ministry was reluctant to take action against those involved. The representatives of the Health Ministry were of the view that the existing rules and regulations did not permit them for action against the herbal medicines manufacturers and a proper legislation was needed in that regard. The legislators also came down hard on the Ministry of Health as well as National Programme Manager of its polio eradication campaign saying that it had failed to manage the programme as despite the utilisation of huge funding provided by WHO, many polio cases have been surfacing specially in Balochistan. One of the members pointed out that as many as 17 cases have been detected during one year in District Chaman. The members also remarked that the government employees working for the polio eradication programme to administer anti-polio drops did not go to the far-flung areas of Balochistan despite the fact that they were receiving huge amount of money in the shape of fuel for vehicles.