Halal food regulatory body to be constituted
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ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to push for urgent legislation to constitute Halal Food Regulatory Authority.
A federal minister informed the National Assembly that the bill for the proposed authority is ready and will be presented before the house for voting soon.
Read: Halal food authority?
Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain was responding to the questions of his fellow lawmakers, regarding the recent banning of 19 packed food items.
Additional secretary, science and technology ministry, Mian Ijaz on February 23 presented a list of 19 items to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology, which he claimed contained ‘haram’ ingredients.
Also read: Haram ingredients in most of imported food items
The items, according to the ministry’s data, contain ingredients such as white and red wine, gelatine and E120 (animal-based food colour). Some items containing chicken have been placed on the list because of doubts regarding the slaughtering procedures.
”Since monitoring of food quality is a provincial subject, the issue of constituting a new authority has to be discussed at the Council of Common Interest level which is scheduled to meet within the month”.
Published in Dawn March 5th , 2015
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Comments (26) Closed
Mar 05, 2015 09:48am
what about a an authority to check sub standard food available in the market?????
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Mar 05, 2015 10:07am
@gb Everything is present, Food Inspector is the person who is responsible for such work, but his work can only be seen in media investigation programmes!
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Mar 05, 2015 10:21am
Another burden on our tax payers money, there are enough agencies in this country to check this, provided they work hard and honestly.
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Mar 05, 2015 10:23am
@gb ...they don't eat that food so why they would care...
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Mar 05, 2015 10:26am
All of a sudden Halal food has become a priority for the government. What about adulterated and poisonous food. What are you doing to save the citizens lives. Is saving their eman more important than saving their lives. How much in prepared foods are we importing from European and non-muslim countries. Or is this another body where dozens of government's sufarshis will be appointed, an opportunity for spending more public funds we do not have. More deficit financing causing more inflation more hidden and open taxes on the poor of this country. Have you no shame?
Government of Pakistan please stop wasting your time and our money.
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Mar 05, 2015 10:35am
Yes please, make sure we consume the best of halal kalakola.
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Mar 05, 2015 10:37am
Close all unauthorized slaughter houses, set the standard requirements and periodically surprise inspiration, make sure to hire honest inspectors who will not take bribes.
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Mar 05, 2015 10:40am
It will use to remove competitors !!!
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Mar 05, 2015 10:45am
”Since monitoring of food quality is a provincial subject, the issue of constituting a new authority has to be discussed at the Council of Common Interest level which is scheduled to meet within the month”
NOT TRUE. Food items that are produced for consumption in the entire country are the federal govt responsibility.
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Mar 05, 2015 11:09am
More regulations, more violations and more corruption.
The whole system is CORRUPT.
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Mar 05, 2015 11:21am
But who will check McDonald, KFC,Duncan donuts,Subway,DOMINO and almost all international brand soft drinks, and the imported squashes in super markets. All of them can escape punishmdnt because of their powers
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Mar 05, 2015 11:29am
At the time when the size of the government needs to be significantly reduced, it is ridiculous to keep creating more government departments and "authorities", Less government is good for the country
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Mar 05, 2015 11:49am
Halal is not limited to food, spread it to earnings as well, how the money is made etc. etc.
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Mar 05, 2015 11:55am
Suddenly, smell of Gen Zia's time. Salat committee, Halal committee, everything being done with great speed by a government, which remains unmoved by the plight of ordinary people. Something sinister is cooking. May be just to blunt the National unity achieved by armed forces against terrorists.
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Mar 05, 2015 11:57am
"Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain was responding to the questions of his fellow lawmakers, regarding the recent banning of 19 packed food items."
When Defense ministry will be more concerned about food items rather than on their original tasks then we can assume that in which direction our country is heading.
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Mar 05, 2015 12:00pm
New minister in making. Give us cheap flour, oil, rice and fuel. We will be all right. Stop the new circus.
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Mar 05, 2015 12:55pm
In inspections carried out couple of years ago in Britain of Indian restaurants (mostly owned by Pakistanis or Bangladeshis), it was found that most of them were using/mixing beef with lamb in the lamb dishes to keep the costs down and con their customers. For a bunch that gets so upset and crazy at the slightest excuse when it comes to their religion, doing this fully knowing that many of their customers may be hindus who don't consume beef was pure hypocrisy.
And now you have your own people feeding you dog meat and what not. Karma catches up, slowly maybe, but surely.
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Mar 05, 2015 01:21pm
Halal or not. Does it tastes different? Does it have different nutritional value?
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Mar 05, 2015 01:32pm
why not hand over to a private firm which can charge on issuing certificate to importer or exporter to save tax payer money
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Mar 05, 2015 02:00pm
What about an authority to check the selling of dog, horse and other meats in the market? These few chemical things might be coming through proper refined channels but the kind of tricks our local food sellers are playing can wreak havoc on our health.
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Mar 05, 2015 02:07pm
I would urge the intelligentsia through media to be part of this bill and come up with suggestions, not only to monitor Halal Food imported and sold in Pakistan, but to move one step ahead of encouraging HALAL industry which includes non-food items like cosmetics, health care, pharmaceuticals, leather industry and so on. Pakistan can take big advantage of the thriving HALAL industry as the "Made in Pakistan" HALAL would be much more attractive than "Made in China, Denmark, Brazil" etc.
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Mar 05, 2015 03:30pm
@Pramod You are mistaken, beef is much more expensive then lamb in UK, so you argument "to keep the cost down" is wrong. In UK even big buisnessess were caught last year selling beefburgers mixed with horse meat.
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Mar 05, 2015 03:33pm
This halal debate is ridiculous. Just the method of slaughter does not make it halal - you have to say Allahu Akbar on the meat as well - which many of our butchers do not even bother with. Moreover the animal has to be treated kindly and any kind of wound does not allow an animal to be slaughtered. Our places of slaughter do not bother with such niceties. You have to first fix your own standards before you turn to others.
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Mar 05, 2015 03:35pm
Why can't the government obtain a list of HALAL items from our brotherly country Malaysia, who have much better standards in all respect. They have done a good work in this field.
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Mar 05, 2015 04:10pm
I wish they would constitute a Halal income regulatory body as well
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Mar 11, 2015 12:40pm
If Gov going to do this, Its very good. While do this please also monitored the import items even use in cosmetics. Things need to do under Islamic law. HFRA have well aware about these all. Need Gov appoint the head which a experience and education in this field and look in relatives as they do. Can get guide line from Malaysian Hala Standard.
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