SC bans selling, marketing of four substandard packaged milk brands

Naimat Khan

KARACHI: The Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Saturday ordered to ban four companies from selling substandard milk in the country.

These directives were issued on the occasion of hearing of a suo motu case pertaining to sale of substandard packaged milk at the Karachi Registry.

Sindh’s authorities have subsequently been told to remove milk belonging to Day fresh, Nurpur, Day Fresh UHT and Sky Milk from sale racks.

According to the report, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSI) has declared milk from all four companies unfit for human consumption.

The report further pointed out that milk from three more companies had not met the standards set by the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority.

It was also stated in the report that a total of 53 brands were tested for a quality check, out of which these four brands turned out to be below standard.

The Supreme Court, subsequently, banned the four companies from selling and marketing their milk products with immediate effect, after laboratory results failed to convince the bench of the quality of the milk supplied. Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, heading a three-member bench that heard the case, expressed annoyance at the laboratory results that showed the aforementioned companies to be selling substandard milk in the city.

In his remarks to the counsel of one of the companies, the CJP observed that it was not milk they were selling, but tea whitener.

During a previous hearing of the case earlier this month, the CJP had directed the relevant authorities to conduct laboratory tests of all brands of packaged milk products available in the city’s markets. He had also chided the concerned authorities for their failure to submit complete details to the court regarding use of injections in cows.

The Chief Justice, in the Lahore Registry, is already hearing the matter of sale of unsafe milk in Punjab as part of suo motu notices on public welfare issues.

Earlier this week on Thursday, while hearing a suo motu case on safe drinking water, the Supreme Court halted 24 mineral water companies from operating in the country until they could satisfy the court regarding their safety standards.