SHC orders Karachi commissioner to resolve milk price issue

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday directed the Karachi commissioner, dairy farmers, milk retailers and other stakeholders to convene a meeting to resolve the issue of fixing milk prices.

The high court also directed the provincial law officer to submit criteria and mechanism for the fixing of milk prices on the next date of hearing. Hearing the petition of the Dairy Farmers Association with regard to increase in milk prices, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi observed that substandard milk would not be allowed to be sold in the market.

The Karachi commissioner submitted the minutes of the meeting held with the stakeholders with regard to the fixing of milk prices. The court was informed by the dairy farmers that milk supply dealers were incurring losses and that they were unable to sell the commodity at the government’s notified rates.

The provincial law officer said milk prices had been fixed at Rs85 a litre after consulting with all the stakeholders. The court asked the Dairy Farmers Association’s counsel if a criterion existed for testing the milk being sold to people. The court directed the city commissioner to convene a meeting with all the stakeholders, including dairy farmers and milk retailers, to review the milk prices and then submit a report on it within three weeks.

Corruption reference

The SHC took an exception to the no-show of the co-accused in a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference pertaining to corruption in the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (Fuuast), observing that the court would be compelled to change its policy with regard to protective bail in corruption cases by the anti-graft watchdog.

Hearing the bail petitions of former vice-chancellor Dr Zafar Iqbal and others in the NAB reference pertaining to misuse of powers and corruption in the purchase of equipment at Fuuast, the court observed that the accused had turned into patients soon after NAB filed the corruption reference against them. The court warned that it could change its policy of granting protective bail in NAB cases.

Illegal appointments

The high court extended the interim protective bail of former provincial police chief Ghulam Haider Jamali and others in the illegal appointments case against them until March 7. The former inspector general of police and others are facing a corruption reference pertaining to illegal appointments in the Sindh police department. The court directed the counsel to come prepared to argue the bail petitions on the next date of hearing.

Back in November 2016 NAB had informed the SHC that 2,800 illegal appointments were made in the provincial police department during Jamali’s tenure. It was disclosed in a report based on an investigation, ordered by the Supreme Court, into the illegal appointments in the Sindh Reserve Police.

Filing the investigation report during the hearing of Jamali’s bail application, NAB’s senior prosecutor said the investigation had unveiled that 2,800 appointments of constables were made in contravention of the laws during 2013-2014, when Jamali was the police chief.

The prosecution said that all such appointments were made by Sindh Reserve Police Hyderabad SSP Ghulam Nabi Keerio, adding that the corrupt practices caused huge losses to the national exchequer. Therefore, the prosecutor opposed the former police chief’s bail plea, saying that he did not deserve the relief due to his involvement in such illegal acts.