Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Friday asked the lawyers to protect the public interest instead of the interest of their clients.

During the hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to high prices of medicines and surgical items, the CJP said he wished to dispose of all the cases he started in his tenure before his retirement in December this year so that people could not point fingers at him and say that he failed to deliver. He said he did not want to hear from his critiques that the CJP made tall claims but took no action.

“I am in more hurry to wrap up the case,” the CJP said as counsel for a pharmaceutical company asked for a date to be fixed for the next hearing.

During the hearing, secretary health and other officials appeared before the court and submitted an interim report over reduction in the prices of medicines and drugs.

The secretary stated that he had to work on 11 matters pertaining to reduction in the prices of medicines on the court’s orders. He said different categories were made over the matter to classify. He said in the ‘A’ category, there were 739 cases, out of which 710 were examined. He said there were 25 cases in the ‘B’ category, out of which 23 cases were examined. He said two cases were sent in the committee’s meeting on the company’s request. He said there were 55 cases in the ‘C’ category, out of which 32 cases were examined. He said there were 410 cases in category ‘D’, which will be examined this month. He said 390 cases about the fixed price of medicines will be examined this month. The chief justice directed the health secretary to furnish a complete report over the matter in the first week of May.

The court was informed by Javed Lakhani that pharmaceutical industry pays 25 billion to the government in the head of taxes. He said the burden of taxes is then shifted to the common man. He said government should be directed to exempt the phrama sector from taxes. To a query by the chief justice, Lakhani said that phrama industry should be made tax-free. “We will try our best to resolve the issues of public welfare that have been touched upon and not let the matter to be taken elsewhere,” the chief justice vowed. He said that it was the job of the parliament to impose or withdraw taxes and court had no jurisdiction in this regard. The chief justice said the case will be decided on May 15 even if he had to sit day and night, adding that no adjournment will be granted in the case anymore.

Published in Daily Times, April 7^th 2018.