Drugs and Medicines (lndemnity) Act, 1957

The Drugs and Medicines (Indemnity) Act, 1957 (Act XVII of 1957) protects government servants and other persons from legal liability arising from a specific defective government order. Section 1 says it extends to the whole of Pakistan and came into force at once.

The background, set out in the preamble, is that an order made by the Central Government under section 3 of the Essential Supplies (Continuance of Temporary Powers) Ordinance, 1955 — adding "drugs and medicines including those administered by injection" to the Essential Commodities Distribution Order, 1953 — had been notified by an official (the Deputy Controller General of Prices and Supplies) who did not have the legal authority to issue it, meaning the order itself had no legal validity. Section 2 defines this as "the notified order," identifying it precisely as Notification No. P.C. 19(15)/55, dated 14 September 1955.

Section 3 is the indemnity itself: no suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding can be brought in any court against any government servant or other person for anything done, action taken, notification or direction issued, price fixed, investigation or arrest made, property seized or confiscated, loss or injury caused, legal proceeding started, or penalty or punishment imposed or enforced, in pursuance of that defective notified order.

In effect, this Act shields officials and others who acted in good faith under an order that later turned out to be legally invalid, so they cannot be sued or prosecuted for those actions. It is a narrow, historical indemnity tied to a single 1955 notification and has no ongoing regulatory role in drug pricing or distribution today.