PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the provincial food secretary to fix reasonable prices of poultry and livestock products in consultation with stakeholders and produce a report within a week.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah ordered the continuation of a ban on the transportation of the cattle and poultry products to Afghanistan until further orders.

It observed that the people had been facing hard times due to a hike in the prices of essential commodities.

The bench fixed Sept 16 for the next hearing into two petitions filed by residents Hafeezur Rehman and Malik Sheharyar on high prices of dairy products and adulteration of milk.

The court had ordered the deputy commissioners in May this yearto stop the transportation of poultry products and their smuggling to Afghanistan.

Orders continuation of ban on their supply to Afghanistan

In early June, it again ordered the administrative officers of different districts to ensure a halt to the smuggling of cattle to Afghanistan.

On the court’s orders, several officials appeared before it. They included the provincial food secretary, who was earlier nominated by the court as the focal person on these issues and director general of the livestock department, along with lawyers for the Pakistan Poultry Association and others.

Additional advocate general Syed Sikander Hayat Shah represented the provincial government.

Representatives of the poultry association requested the bench to allow export of their products as the poultry industry had been facing loss. They sought permission for the export of a day-old chick.

They said the production of a day-old chick in the country was 120 million per month, whereas the requirement was 50-60 millions per month. They added that the production of chicks was in surplus and due to ban imposed by the high court they had been facing losses.

The association’s representatives claimed that while the high court had banned the export of poultry products from the province, those products had been exported through the Chaman border and other ways.

The bench observed that the court was only interested that the people here should get poultry products on affordable rates.

It added that it didn’t want to damage any business but at the same time priority should be to first provide relief to local population.

During hearing, Justice Syed M Attique Shah asked the food secretary about the prevalent beef price.

The secretary replied that presently, beef was available at around Rs600 per kg.

The chief justice observed that earlier, the beef was sold for Rs300-Rs350 per kg but the same was available at exorbitant rate.

The bench observed that the government even could not control price of bread and prices of daily use commodities had been on the rise with each passing day thus making life of people miserable.

It directed the officials to ramp up efforts and provide relief to the people.

The bench added that the officials should hold meeting with the stakeholders so as to fix reasonable prices of these commodities.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2021