LAHORE, Sept 25: The Lahore High Court has required the presence of directors of the PCSIR and the PSQCA for today (Wednesday) for determining whether or not the imported Indian sugar is fit for human consumption.

Justice Hamid Ali Shah marked Thursday for hearing arguments from all parties regarding the fitness of the Indian sugar. The judge had been provided with reports from different sources regarding the fitness of the product.

The Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) Laboratories and the Shahtaj Sugar Mills Limited submitted the reports which show the level of sulphur dioxide, which determines the fitness of sugar for human consumption, higher than the one permissible even in the B-class sugar.

The PCSIR report shows that sulphur dioxide in the Indian sugar is 91.20 per mg/kg/ppm, which is 21.20 mg/kg/ppm in excess of the level in B-class sugar. “The provided sample of sugar on the basis of above-tested parameters do not fall within the specification of the Pakistan Standards Institution,” the report said.

The report submitted by the PSQCA said the authority developed two national standards in 1997 for white sugar was classified in A- and B-class categories. The authority was not monitoring the inland production of sugar till the time the government had not notified the certification, it said.

“But now the government in furtherance of world trade agreements has made it compulsory for the importers to obtain Quality Conformance Report from the PSQCA before release of imported goods. Therefore, now it is the responsibility of the authority to control the quality of imported white sugar by certifying quality conforming to the PNS,” it added.

The report said the court had sought a report regarding whether or not the imported Indian sugar was fit for human consumption when Luqman Ahmad challenged the quality of the sugar imported by Rana Brothers. “Meanwhile, Rana Brothers filed bill of entry for release of imported India sugar whereby the Customs authorities contacted the PSQCA for issuance of QCR in respect of imported sugar,” it said.

The PSQCA issued a conformance report on Sept 11 2007, declaring that the samples qualify to be B-class sugar, it said. Meanwhile, the report added, the Pakistan Society of Sugar Technologists intimated the Cane Commissioner that only A-class sugar was being produced in Pakistan in accordance with the standard made by the PSQCA.

They requested the commissioner to ensure that the Indian sugar must qualify to A-class.