LAHORE, Oct 19: A leading beverages company on Wednesday deposed before the Lahore High Court that only provincial governments were competent to issue quality certificates for food and beverages and the enforcement of such standards by the federal government was unconstitutional.

Through a constitutional petition, the Riaz Bottlers contended that quality certification of food items, beverages and other products was a provincial subject because it was included neither in the federal legislative nor the concurrent list of the fourth schedule of the constitution.

Challenging a notice issued by the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority in June under which the company was required to affix the standard mark of “P S 1654” on its bottles, the petitioner contended that the notice itself suffered from a legal infirmity because it was issued by the Pakistan Standards Institutions in 1999.

But the organization stood dissolved in 1996 and thus was not competent to issue the quality control standards.

The company also questioned the authority’s notice on the ground that it was not offering any concession in return.

The PSQCA had issued such directions to a large number of food and beverages companies in Pakistan in 2001 asking them to pay 25 paisas for each mark of beverage bottle or food tin or pack.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the authority issued the notification in October 2001 seeking the food and beverages companies to mark their product by Dec 1.

The counsel stated that the company filed a writ petition which was decided on Dec 13, 2001, with the instructions that the parties to the dispute should resolve the issue through mutual consultation.

He submitted that the PSQCA office in Lahore failed to respond to many subsequent requests by the company for a negotiated settlement.

The counsel submitted that not only that the authority failed to negotiate the controversy, it issued a fresh notice to the beverages company with the same direction.

He submitted that the notice amounted to contempt of court because it was issued against the spirit of the LHC order.

He pleaded for a stay order against the closure of the petitioner’s business. On this the court asked Tariq Shamim, the standing counsel for the federal government, and he assured the petitioner that the factory would not be closed down as a punitive action.

The court adjourned for Oct 27 the hearing of the main petition inviting arguments from the parties to the dispute.