LAHORE: The Lahore Restaurants Association (LRA) announced on Sunday that it would stage a protest demonstration on Tuesday (tomorrow) against the Punjab Food Authority for “targeting and aiming to close the hotel/restaurant industry on the pretext of food checking.”

The association also decided to approach court of law to challenge the raids by the PFA teams without proper awareness and mechanism.

Know more: Swoop on two five-star hotels

The LRA noted at the meeting that was attended by 200 GST paying restaurant/hotel owners and managers that it was not against the PFA, rather its raiding teams were spreading a negative impression about the restaurant business in Lahore through the media. He said the restaurant/hotel sector was not only paying billions in taxes including GST but also providing jobs to hundreds of thousands of people in Punjab.

“The PFA did not take us into confidence. It neither made us aware us of the laws nor had issued prior warnings,” Ahmad Shafique, LRA secretary general, told Dawn. He said though the department had constituted a committee in this regard, it didn’t even bother to include representatives of the LRA.

“We take extraordinary measures in food handling issues but the PFA teams even closed the restaurants over trivial things,” he claimed. He demanded that the chief minister intervene in the matter.

LICENCES: A CDGL team on Sunday cancelled stall licences of two vendors for violating the price lists and selling substandard commodities at Iqbal Town’s Sunday Bazaar.

The team, according to a spokesman, also visited some other markets and imposed fine of Rs5,000 on vendors.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play