Drap hires interns to help with workload
A REPORTER — PUBLISHED MAY 10, 2016 06:57AM
ISLAMABAD: In order to help with its backlog of over 6,000 cases, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) has hired 50 young pharmacists for a six-month unpaid internship, according to the chief executive officer (CEO) Drap, Dr Mohammad Aslam.

The Drap chief said the hiring of the interns would help in dealing with the pending cases of medicine registration.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Aslam said though the internees would not be paid, they would get an opportunity to work in a regulatory environment and gain experience.

“After receiving applications, we conducted interviews in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and selected 50 candidates for the six-month internship. There were four divisions of the drug regulator authority in 2010 which have increased to 13 and the workload has also gone up by many times,” he said.

Number of divisions in authority increased from four to 13, which has increased workload, says Drap CEO
He said during the last few months, 3,000 cases had been dealt with and 6,000 were still pending.

“Though the internees cannot do file work, they can help in checking and arranging files, record keeping and the more physically demanding jobs,” he said.

“The interns will not be signing any of the documents and only their in-charge will be responsible for mistakes and errors,” he said.

In reply to a question, Dr Aslam said Drap had advertised 192 posts last year of which 140 had been filled and the remaining would be filled soon.

Uploading details of the internship, the regulatory authority had in March of this year posted on its website that a candidate who had earned a BPharmacy or an equivalent degree in the last two years would be preferred for the internship, which will last a year.

On the website, the drug regulatory authority had said the internees would not claim for the regularisation of their services in Drap against a regular post and that the services of the internees can be terminated at any time within a 24-hour notice and that no TA/DA would be admissible.