LAHORE: Dr Murad Rass, an opposition legislator, has submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly against 1,200 unregistered drug (pharmaceutical) companies existing and distributing medicines in the province. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Dr Murad Rass is a practicing doctor and has always been vocal against malpractices in the field of medicine at the forum of the Punjab Assembly. He filed the resolution in the Notice Branch of Punjab Assembly Secretariat on Tuesday. In the resolution, he suggested the federal government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) that they should establish an official website to provide right information about registered and unregistered medicines for the greater interest of the people of Pakistan. He argued that there was no proper method and facilities for the drug inspectors to check spurious medicines and unregistered drugs while the citizens are also deprived of getting any kind of facility to check such medicines online to judge its authenticity. Dr Murad further stated in the resolution that despite the efforts of Punjab Health Department and Chief Minister’s Task Force for Spurious Drugs, as many as 1,200 unregistered pharmaceutical companies were involved in selling out spurious drugs across the province. The resolution stated that according to the doctors, due to poor performance of drug inspectors, sale of unregistered and spurious medicines has not stopped at medical stores, while as many as 149 patients died in 2011 in Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) due to the mixing of malaria’s medicine with some life saving drugs used to cure heart diseases. Separately, Pakistan Muslim League (Q) legislator Khadija Umar Farooqi also filed an adjournment motion in the assembly secretariat on Tuesday in which she criticised the Shahbaz Sharif government for leasing out the contracts of public hospital laundries to some foreign firms. She alleged that the ‘official mafia’ present in the health department were making money through such acts. She demanded the speaker to hold a general debate on the matter in the House. It is hoped that both, resolution of Dr Murad and adjournment motion of Khadija Umar, would be taken up in the upcoming Punjab Assembly session starting from 22nd of this month.