KARACHI, March 6: The Sindh High Court asked the city district government official concerned on Tuesday to call a meeting of all stakeholders to fix an agreed milk price within 16 days and asked the retailers to sell the commodity at Rs28 per litre in the meanwhile.

A statement made on behalf of the wholesalers seemed to take the wind out of the petitioner’s sails. Their counsel, Advocate Kazim Hasan, informed a division bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Yasmeen Abbasy that the wholesalers sold milk to retailers for Rs26 per litre.

The court heard the counsel for the petitioner Milk Retailers Association, the city district government, the wholesalers and the dairy farmers at length before passing the order after about three hours of proceedings. Advocate Naimur Rehman reiterated on behalf of the petitioner that the CDG-fixed price of Rs28 per litre was unreasonable and unprofitable.

He said the wholesalers recovered Rs32.88 from the retailers and a retail price of Rs34 was essential to keep them going. The retailers, he contended, would be incurring loss if they were to sell milk at Rs28 per litre.

He also claimed that a committee constituted by the provincial animal husbandry department also calculated the price at Rs34.

The CDGK counsel, Manzoor Ahmed, said the price of Rs28 per litre was fixed after taking all relevant factors into consideration.

The government was mindful of the interests of the various stakeholders in the trade and the price was neither arbitrary nor unreasonable.

The decision was taken in the public interest and the government was well aware that only a reasonable return could keep the retailers in business. The milk sellers earned a net profit of at lease one rupee per litre after purchasing the commodity from wholesalers at Rs26 a litre, he maintained.

The bench ordered the CDG district officer for price control to convene a meeting of all stakeholders, including public representatives, on March 15 to consider the issue and revise the price after taking all the relevant factors into consideration.

The petition would come up again after two months. In the meantime, the wholesalers would supply milk to retailers at Rs26 per litre and the retailers would sell it for Rs28 per litre to the consumers.