THERE are times when the police are just not efficient enough. In the latest blunder, they were guilty of arresting the wrong Ayesha Mumtaz in Lahore, and letting the real one toy with this city, with the most sinister of intentions. It was a strange mistake given the profile the real Ayesha Mumtaz has built over the last few months’ upheaval at the place where ‘they have always loved their food’.

There have been so many raids in the name of food hygiene here that some of the newspapers’ food critics have stopped sending in their reviews — risking redundancy over an eventuality where they are found to be advertising the rancid and rotten. They cannot be faulted for fear of being upstaged by the obstinate Ayesha and her Lahore demolition squad. 

None are expected to escape her wrath and just as we are fast running out of eating places that do not carry the stigma of having been sealed or censured by the food authority, fanciful rumours about her impending transfer from the threatening post are getting stale by the hour. It is being said that her departure has been sealed. It is a matter of only days before the restaurant owners and guests in the Punjabi capital and other cities inspired by the AM example will be able to resume their love affair without fear of being caught in a situation that compromises them. 

There have been so many raids in the name of food hygiene in Lahore that some food critics have stopped sending in their reviews.

The team captain behind bars would have suited everyone perfectly. It would have relieved so many, from those who might have a genuine reason for complaining that they had been treated too harshly by the officer to the chauvinists who are simply unable to take it from a woman outside the kitchen and hence must find ways to oust her.

The wrong — fake according to the police definition — Ayesha Mumtaz was caught with three genuine-looking ‘accomplices’. The gang of four was found fleecing eateries, introducing themselves as Punjab Food Authority officials and cashing in of course on the formidable reputation of the feared original raider and her team at the PFA. They did it one time too many and soon enough had their moment of shame on the news channels. The real catch, the real sour note, however, came a few days later.

On Wednesday, this country was faced with potentially ‘the biggest haram meat scandal in its history’. All because Ayesha Mumtaz and her squad had been allowed to roam free in the streets of a Lahore that has long been the envy of everyone as a most efficiently governed city. According to the nauseating initial details, the PFA team had discovered 120 kilograms of what could ‘reportedly’ be pig meat brought over by train.

The meat, reports said, had been brought to the city of food lovers from Rawalpindi-Islamabad. Wait. A few hours later someone somewhere did recall that Ayesha Mumtaz, who was there at the head of the much-publicised seizure as usual, did say something about the need to get the suspicious meat examined at the laboratory to establish which animal it belonged to. There was an impression that after the initial splash, many of the television channels also played the news down.

Many here were hoping for a ‘no’ report from the lab, for any other revelation could bring them face to face with a far too devastating a scenario to confront. This was one discovery they never wanted the Ayesha Mumtaz team to make, and many of those one came across in Lahore on the day were found making one wish: let it not be how it appeared at first glance. Let these reports be untrue, please.

There were other explanations, such as the one which said that a consignment of pig meat — if it was pig meat — might have been brought to Lahore for supply to any non-Muslim consumers — mainly foreigners. These consumers reside in big enough numbers here for some enterprising souls to try and find a market for all those wild boars that are found in the countryside, particularly in the area around Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Whatever the destination for the meat that was seized, Lahorites were desperate for some urgent denial. And there were others who thought that they had all the more reason to doubt Ayesha Mumtaz’s work, and if not that, her methods. The one call that made so much sense was where it was asked: why wasn’t there a procedure in place which established the quality — and origins — of a product before the news could be flashed all over? 

Only recently, there was this incident in which milkmen in the vicinity of Lahore stopped supply, complaining of excesses by the government’s inspection officials. A compromise was struck after a couple of days and the example highlighted the importance of proper professional testing of the confiscated stuff to avoid any injustice. It should have provided a standard to the authorities instead of every discovery by the PFA and the like leading to sensational scenes enacted before a deeply scared audience.

Ayesha Mumtaz and her department should be credited with taking the initiative; they should not be left exposed to face the counter attack by themselves. If the system is worth persevering with, it must diversify and not let one person, however popular at this moment, project the image of a sole saviour. This does create a lot of acrimony and can lead to serious challenges like the ones which are reflected in the rumours that suggest a hastened ouster of the chief raider. The face must not be removed. The campaign must be reinforced by other faces and an improved procedure.

The writer is Dawn’s resident in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2015

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