KARACHI, May 17: The Sindh High Court restrained the oil and ghee manufacturers on Tuesday from using second-hand or substandard tin plates in cans and containers. A petition alleging that used and substandard packing material was being routinely used for food items, specially ghee and oil, came up before a division bench. One of the respondent manufacturers was found to have wound up his business and Advocate Amin Memon, counsel for petitioner Moulvi Iqbal Haider of Awami Himayat Tehrik, was asked to strike his name off.

The bench, which consisted of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Maqbool Baqar, asked Deputy Attorney-General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui to ‘communicate’ with the federal director-general for health, a respondent, and obtain detailed instructions. Notice to the Pakistan Medical Association through its president and general secretary was ordered to be repeated.

The memo of the petition, the bench ordered, be published in the dailies Dawn and Jang so that any party interested in pursuing or defending ‘the cause’ may apply to the court. The hearing was adjourned until after summer vacation.

Advocate M.M. Tariq, appearing for the respondent ghee and oil manufacturers, categorically denied the petitioner’s allegation and stated that they had neither used nor do they intend to use sub-standard packing material. Taking the assertion on record, the bench directed the respondents from ‘violating the same’ till the next date, to be fixed by office.