The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has ruled that registration as a medical practitioner does not exempt doctors from obtaining a licence to sell drugs, overturning a Peshawar High Court judgment that had stopped regulatory action against doctors accused of running dispensaries inside their clinics.
A bench of Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Ali Baqar Najafi accepted the appeal from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government against the June 5, 2023 judgment of the Peshawar High Court, hearing the case on September 23, 2026.
The case stems from a January 21, 2020 inspection, when officials seized medicines under Form-6 and issued show-cause notices to doctors allegedly selling drugs without licences.
The FCC held that Section 31(4)(a) of the Pharmacy Act, 1967 only protects doctors who dispense medicines to their patients or against their prescriptions. It does not allow them to run a drug business. Under Section 23(1)(c) of the Drugs Act, 1976, no one may sell drugs without a licence, and professional registration cannot bypass this rule.
It said whether a clinic dispenses medicines incidentally or operates as a sales outlet depends on evidence such as stock quantities, sales records, invoices and prescriptions, which statutory authorities must examine first.
It upheld drug inspections and seizures, finding no evidence that the inspector lacked authority. The doctors had approached the High Court without replying to the show-cause notices, and the court said such intervention requires exceptional circumstances, which were absent.
The FCC restored the proceedings but did not prejudge the doctors’ guilt. They may submit replies and records, and the authorities must decide the allegations independently.
