SAHIWAL: The district administration claimed on Friday to have confiscated a huge quantity of ‘desi ghee’ being prepared with a mix of butter oil and chemicals.

District Coordination Officer Javed Akhtar Mahmood along with a team raided Pak Dairy factory near Arifwala’s Rakhani Morr and confiscated thousands of tin packs of fake desi ghee. The boxes contained packs of different weights having market value of Rs50 million.

The DCO informed reporters that the dairy brand supplied the product to a super store chain and other prominent concerns.

He said the factory was preparing ghee with the composition of butter oil and different chemicals to add fragrance.

Arifwala Assistant Commissioner Tariq Hussain Bhatti informed the DCO about the factory whose owner during raid said he got licence from the provincial government to prepare desi ghee from butter oil and chemicals. “But he failed to show licence or any other official documents corroborating his claim,” Dr Sattar, DDO health, told this correspondent on phone.

The team arrested factory owner Muhammad Rizwan and sealed his workplace, the DDO said and added that these packs would be sent to laboratories in Lahore for chemical examination.

The DCO quoted Rizwan as having said the product was being supplied to a super store in Lahore and Rawalpindi and many known entities. The district administration would raid more factories and take immediate action in case of any illegal business, he added.

The Arifwala city police registered a case against the factory owner.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

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