PESHAWAR, July 23: A Peshawar High Court bench on Monday took a suo motu notice of the export and smuggling of cattle to Afghanistan and suspended cattle export permits until the next hearing on August 2.

Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Shahjehan Khan Akhunzada also ordered confiscation of all the cattle bound for Afghanistan.

In its orders, the bench said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa civil administration, especially chief secretary and police, should ensure that no cattle was smuggled to Afghanistan through unfrequented and unauthorised routes.

It also asked all district and sessions judges of the districts adjoining the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and frontier regions to task magistrates with conducting surprise raids on anti-smuggling checkposts and reporting illegal activities, if any, to the high court registrar for action.

The bench later fixed for August 2 the next hearing into the case ordering suspension until then of all cattle export permits issued by the livestock directorate, the federal government or any ministry or authority acting under the federal government.The director of the high court’s human rights cell produced a report, which revealed that cattle and chicken were smuggled out of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa leading to shortage and high prices of beef, mutton and poultry in local market to the misery of people, especially during Ramazan.

The chief justice observed that the situation was very alarming and might cause a revolt-like situation in near future.

He converted the report into a human rights writ petition and summoned the relevant officials, including acting Fata additional chief secretary Jamal Nasir, Peshawar DCO Jawed Marwat, livestock and dairy development director general Dr Sher Mohammad, food director Mohammad Anwar, Peshawar SSP (investigation) Tahir Ayub, SP (cantonment) Shabbir Hussain and SP (rural) Shafiullah Khan for explanation.

The bench inquired the said officials about export and smuggling of cattle and poultry to Afghanistan and tribal areas.

It observed that during course of hearing, it was pointed out by all that the federal government was issuing permits for cattle export to Afghanistan, while majority of permit holders collected cattle from the province.

It said cattle export and smuggling had led to shortage of cattle and unavailability of beef and mutton pushing their prices beyond the purchasing power of the fasting people.

The chief justice observed that the situation should be corrected without delay because it had been established that cattle export permits were issued to the authorities’ blue-eyed people, who illegally earned millions of rupees.

The bench asked officials, especially the livestock director general, why the standard operating procedure on cattle export finalised by a recent meeting chaired by provincial minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain had not been followed and why political agents had been given freehand to deal with the matter, especially when the civil administration of settled areas took the full brunt of it.

The officials failed to satisfy the bench, which directed all provincial and Fata officials to implement the said SOP within three days and submit a report to the court registrar to prevent action.

The bench observed that the quota allotted for each of Fata agencies like 60 head of cattle for Khyber Agency and 50 for other agencies per day was reasonable. It added that to regulate the trade, names of cattle dealers duly nominated should be regularly published and notified on the website of livestock department on a daily basis, while no unauthorised persons should be allowed to take cattle out of settled districts.

The bench ordered police, food department, FC and livestock department to establish a joint checkpost within the next 48 hours and observed that a nominee of the respective commissioner or DCO should oversee and physically check and verify that the cattle were taken through authorised/notified routes by permit holders.

The bench observed that the cattle and poultry seized while being smuggled should be auctioned or given on subsidised rate to butchers for sale of their meat at places specified by the administration.