Meetings to fix milk price failed due to rigidity of milk producers and sellers, SHC told

Various meetings with regard to fixation of milk price remained unproductive due to unnecessary antagonism, inflexibility and rigidity of retailers, wholesalers and dairy farmers associations, the Karachi assistant commissioner told the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday.

Filing a compliance report before the SHC on a petition seeking the implementation of court orders with regard to the sale of milk at the government notified rate, the assistant commissioner submitted that milk was being sold at an increased price in the city in violation of the law.

He submitted that the district administrations had imposed fines amounting to Rs9,983,500 on 1,899 profiteers from January 1 till October 15, 2021. The high court was informed that a meeting had been scheduled for October 28 to determine and fix a rational and judicious price of fresh milk after consultation with all the stakeholders.

The high court had on a previous hearing directed the Karachi commissioner and all relevant officials of the food authority to chalk out a strategy to ensure that milk was sold at the fixed price and its quality was maintained. The Sindh Food Authority’s counsel submitted that standard operating procedure had been issued to milk sellers for supply of fresh milk.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after taking the reports on record adjourned the hearing till December 9. The counsel for the milk retailers association also sought time to go through the reports and make any observation which he may have after discussing the same with his clients.

Petitioner Imran Shahzad had submitted in the application that the SHC had disposed of petitions with regard to the fixation of milk price in March 2018, following a settlement that was reached with the consent of all the stakeholders, according to which milk was to be sold at Rs94 per litre in the city.

He had maintained that the high court had directed the commissioner to issue a notification with regard to the milk price and ensure that milk was sold in the markets as per its notified price decided by the stakeholders. The petitioner had submitted that the SHC had ordered the Karachi commissioner to ensure that the quality of milk was checked at every stage of its supply from the dairy farms to the wholesalers and retailers and in case of any violation of the quality standards, the commissioner had been directed to take legal action against those responsible for the violations.

Shahzad had informed the SHC that in spite of the court order, milk was being sold in the city at an increased rate of Rs120 per litre and above but the commissioner was not taking action against milk sellers for selling the commodity at higher rates.