LAHORE: The Supreme Court, on Thursday, took suo motu notice over sale of sub-standard milk, mineral water and poultry feed and the use of injections enhancing an animals’ milk production and sought detailed reports from the Punjab government.
The two-member bench comprising of Justices Mian Saqib Nisar and Iqbal Hameedur Rehman heard the appeal filed by Watan Party against the sale of adulterated milk. However, the bench converted it into a suo motu notice due to seriousness of the matter.
Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel Barrister Zafar Ullah, while arguing before the court submitted that adulterated packed and open milk was being sold openly in marketplaces, causing serious health problems among the masses. He said that there was no ‘standard-checking-laboratory’ in the country to check the milk and water.
He also pointed out that a petition, still unresolved, regarding the sale of sub-standard mineral water was pending with the Lahore High Court (LHC) for the past eight years. At this, the bench deplored the situation and observed that if the circumstances remained unchanged then every Pakistani would become a Hepatitis patient.
The court was also told about the use of injections in dairy animals for obtaining more milk and the sub-standard poultry feed usage. To which, the bench converted the appeal into a suo motu notice and sought separate reports from the Punjab government in two weeks.
The bench also directed the provincial Advocate General to present the record of the pending petition against the sale of sub-standard water in the LHC.
