LAHORE: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered chemical examination of all domestic and international brands of packed milk available in the market.

A two-judge bench directed the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore and the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to conduct the analysis of all brands of packed milk within a month.

Hearing a petition against sale of substandard milk, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that the government’s responsibility to check quality of the edible items was being discharged by court.

Addressing representatives of the three institutions, the judge instructed them to conduct the analysis of the milk samples without any fear and leniency as the matter involved lives of the children in particular. The bench appointed Advocate Haider Rasool Mirza as coordinator in the matter and adjourned hearing for four weeks.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan of Watan Party filed the petition stating that citizens had been consuming milk adulterated with chemicals including detergent power. He said the use of contaminated and substandard milk had been leading to serious diseases such as cancer and hepatitis-C in humans.

He pointed out that there was not a single laboratory in Pakistan that had the capability to gauge contamination of chemicals in milk and water as well. He asked the court to ban use of contaminated, adulterated milk and water.

Child-abduction cases

The Supreme Court on Friday observed that parents’ fear for their children’s safety had been gradually evaporating since the court had taken suo motu notice of increasing child-abduction incidents in Punjab.

Hearing the suo motu case, a two-judge bench expressed its satisfaction on the progress and observed that the situation had returned to normality.

Earlier, Advocate General Punjab Shakilur Rehman told the bench that two of the members of a steering committee formed by the court were out of country. He said more time was required to submit a report of the committee regarding cases of children kidnappings.

The bench allowed time to the AGP for the submission of the report and adjourned hearing for a month.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2016