The Supreme Court on Thursday set up a committee comprising customs department personnel to probe as to how the expired tin/can and ready to make juices are imported and place its findings before the court in a month. Heading a three-member bench, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday announced composition of the committee that would include, Member Customs, Director General Customs Intelligence and Chief of Anti-Smuggling Customs.
The court passed this order while hearing a suo moto notice regarding release of imported but expired juices in the market throughout the country. The committee is required not only to probe how popular the international brands of imported juices are and whether these reach Pakistan in the garb of scrap.
At the last hearing the court was told by District Officer (Food) Lahore that juices-cans were allegedly imported as scrap from Dubai and dumped in the market by replacing the expiry with a fresh date. The court also sentenced Mohammad Shafiq for a month on committing contempt of the court and fined him Rs 10,000 for misleading the court regarding the quality of juices.
City District Government Lahore (CDGL) Magistrate Tariq Mehmood Zafar was also suspended with show cause notice for handing over the juices to Shafiq on superdari in May last. The juices were allegedly imported by Sony Traders and three truckload of these were sold to Mohammad Shafiq who later transported them to Lahore. The juices were found expired when checked in Lahore on June 7 and remained dumped in the godowns. Later, the District Food Inspector raided the premises and confiscated the expired goods from the Shadab Good Transport Company.
A complaint was registered against Mohammad Shafiq under Pure Food Ordinance 1960 but the accused was released by the judicial magistrate Tariq Mehmood Zafar. The decision was however reversed by the Sessions Court, which was later maintained by the Lahore High Court on an appeal of the Food Department against the magistrate order on the grounds that the consumption of expired juices could be poisonous. The court will now hear the matter on November 5.