A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Roohul Amin Khan also directed the district coordination officers (DCOs) to personally visit the bazaars and ensure the enforcement of the government’s announced price of chicken as the retailers and suppliers had created artificial crisis in the market and were selling it forRs170 per kg against the fixed rate of Rs160.

The bench asked the DCOs to book the violators under section 188 of Pakistan Penal Code. The chief justice revealed that he had received information that representatives of Task Force were involved in the cattle smuggling to Afghanistan and Fata through unfrequented routes with the help of the police.

The chief justice also expressed concern over the absence of representatives of some departments from the Task Force aimed at controlling and checking the smuggling of cattle and poultry.

The bench directed additional chief secretary, Fata to inform the heads of all the departments concerned that it would constitute an offence even if a single cattle head was smuggled to Fata beyond the announced quota. He directed him to suspend the concerned officials and transfer their cases to Anti-Corruption Department.

The bench also directed the Home and Tribal Affairs Department to notify seven additional price control magistrates for Peshawar today as currently only six such magistrates were working in the city.

The court also ordered the provincial police officer (PPO) and additional home secretary to inform the DPOs and commissioners to implement the court order regarding ban on smuggling of cattle and poultry to Afghanistan and Fata.

The bench adjourned the case to September 6 for next hearing.The bench had earlier directed the political agents, assistant political agents and rest of the political administration at all the Frontier Regions (FRs) to comply with the court orders and ensure ban on export and smuggling of cattle and poultry to Afghanistan or else face strict action under the contempt of court law.

The chief justice had taken suo motu notice of the report of the high court’s human rights cell. The director of the high court’s human rights cell produced a report that revealed that cattle and poultry were being smuggled from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa causing shortages and high prices of beef, mutton and poultry in the local markets.