PHC issues notices to KP govt, Livestock Dept

Adulterated milk

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday put on notice the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and director general of Livestock Department in a writ petition filed against the use of adulterated and synthetic milk and supply of dead poultry from Punjab province to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A division bench comprising Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Lal Jan Khattak also directed the deputy commissioner of Peshawar to appear in person on February 23 and explain his position about the use of adulterated milk in the provincial metropolis and measures to stop it.

The petition had been filed by a Peshawar-based lawyer, Muhammad Khurshid Khan. During hearing, the petitioner requested the court to issue direction to the provincial government for establishment of a Food Authority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, like the one set up in Punjab, and to establish mobile laboratory units in all districts of the province.

He said on January 20, the Peshawar administration disposed of 8,000 litres adulterated milk supplied from Punjab province after the laboratory tests and receiving results that limestone,
cooking oil and sugarcane juice were mixed in the milk.

The petitioner said that about 1,50,000 litres milk was being supplied to Peshawar city alone and this milk is used without tests and inspection. He pointed out that Pakistan is the fifth largest milk producing country in the world, but unfortunately the milk was adulterated, making it injurious to health.

The petitioner further stated that four kinds of milk is used in the country, including loose milk which is used about 93 percent, second is tetra milk packed and used for two to three months period and the third kind of milk is stocked in plastic bags and envelops, which is only used for three days.

The fourth kind of milk, he said, is dry milk, used from 6 months up to a year and above. The petitioner pointed out that first the owners started adulteration in the milk by injecting the buffalos and cows to get 20 percent extra milk. After this, the petitioner said, dealers adulterated the milk by mixing urea fertiliser, hydrogen peroxide, aluminium phosphate and formalin and other things.

He claimed that synthetic milk was also being sold in the market. Also, the petitioner said there were big poultry farms in Punjab where birds in thousands die. The petitioner said the dead poultry is deceitfully sold to dealers in KP at very low prices and brought through containers for distribution in the hotels.He claimed that once the Peshawar administration seized the dead poultry containers, but the dead poultry is being distributed in the entire province.