The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday directed the provincial government to submit a reply to a plea seeking action against the responsible in the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) expired stents case. LHC Justice Raheel Kamran took up the plea of Rana Sikandar advocate seeking action against those responsible for the expired stents case scandal. At the outset of the hearing, the counsel of the caretaker Punjab government sought time to submit the reply in the case, which was okayed by the LHC bench.

 The high court directed the Punjab government to submit its response to the expired stents case within a week. Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) report ? revealed 38 patients were inserted as many as 39 expired stents at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), last year.

The Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) preliminary report on the use of expired stents stated that 500 stents were bought from a private company in 2019. The acquired stents were supposed to be inserted in 2020 but they were to be inserted into the patients even after 19 months of their expiry date. The report revealed that despite the availability of stents, the PIC kept on demanding the same from other hospitals showing the element of malice in the case as evidence, the report read.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)