KARACHI: The fate of the case linked with the clearance of pharmaceutical raw material still hangs in the balance, as the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has yet to respond against the letter written by the Pakistan Customs authorities in order to settle the issue created between Federal Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) and Pakistan Customs Services (PCS).
It is pertinent to mention here that the case was unearthed in August-2014 in which the Federal Drug Department (FDD) alleged that the officials of Pakistan Customs cleared the consignments of pharmaceutical raw material without prior permission of the FDD and referred the case to Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Lahore for investigation into the matter. Later on, the FIA involved 76-Customs officials into investigation and also issued show-cause notices against them.
In the following case, the Drug Regulatory Authority (DRA) was of the view that the Pakistan Customs officials were involved in the clearance of pharmaceutical raw material illegally, as the importer M/s Intervac (Pvt) Limited, Lahore did not have the clearance certificate, which is mandatory under Rule 15 of the Drug (Import & Export) Rules, 1976.
However, the authorities concerned of Pakistan Customs had the view point that in terms of Serial No.7, Part-II (Procedural Requirements) to Appendix-B read with paragraph 5(B)(i) of the Import Policy Order (IPO), 2013 in vogue, the import of pharmaceutical (allopathic) raw material of pharmaceutical grade in the form of unprocessed ingredients is allowed, inter-alia, to pharmaceutical industries holding valid pharmaceutical manufacturing.
