McDonald imported 71-ton substandard meat, MPA tells Punjab PA

LAHORE: A PML-N Punjab Assembly member has revealed that a multinational food chain, McDonalds, imported 71 tonnes of substandard meat into Pakistan and some multinational companies earned $230 million in the country and sent it abroad.
Speaking in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, he protested that the government could not force close even a single outlet of any multinational food chain even for serious violation of rules, adding that those companies were not sacred cows which could not be prosecuted in Pakistan. He said billions of dollars were being made by these multinational companies here but Pakistanis did not even know what they were being served at these fast food centres.
He said these companies were importing oil made from the fat of pig on the pretext of making soap from it and using it for cooking their products. In his reply, Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin admitted failure of the Punjab food authority and his department to tackle the serious crime of food adulteration and the use of expired products by restaurants across the province.
Faced with criticism over the use of expired meat imported by the chain of restaurants, Yasin confessed to the rise of dangerous adulteration of food and beverages. On the instructions of the speaker, the minister expressed his disappointment with malpractices of restaurant and factory owners in Punjab. He pointed to a restaurant located on MM Alam Road, which he claimed to have used bones for the owner’s dogs stored in the fridge along with other ingredients used by the restaurant cooks.
Meanwhile, Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Rana Babar Hussain faced questions over the board of directors of Bank of Punjab. The PML-N MPA informed the House that plans were underway to choose the successor to current BOP President Naeemuddin Khan, who had been serving in this position since September, 2008. The session will resume on Monday at 3pm.