Held up dates: Court summons food ministry official

Will face contempt proceeding if he fails to appear

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday summoned the Ministry of Food official  after he failed to submit a reply in connection with a 350-kg consignment of Saudi dates held at the Islamabad airport due to problems with the paperwork.

Earlier IHC judge Athar Minallah had directed the director-general (DG) of plant protection to submit the reply within a week in connection with the consignment, ordered by the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) Director Abdullah Al-Afifi, and held at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

When the DG failed to comply with court order, Justice Minallah remarked that contempt proceedings will be initiated if the official  failed to appear in person at the next hearing on June 29. Though, the remarks were not made a part of the order the court ordered the official to appear in person.

Al-Afifi had sought the IHC’s intervention after the consignment, imported from Saudi Arabia, was held at the airport because the required Saudi documents were in Arabic rather than bilingual — English and Arabic. The importer had instead attached a translation of the Arabic document.

Earlier, Justice Minallah had issued notice to the Ministry of National Food, Security and Research, after Al-Afifi filed a petition seeking release of the consignment at the earliest. Al-Afifi claims that the consignment contains perishable items, which have been held without any justification.

He maintained, through his counsel Rehanuddin Khan Golra, that the customs authorities had no objection to the shipment, but the food ministry officials stopped the consignment and ordered that a quarantine certificate issued by the Saudi Ministry of Agriculture be produced.

Golra said his client produced a quarantine certificate issued and written in Arabic and translated into English. He said that the phytosanitary certificate bears a declaration that the contents of the certificate were according to the quarantine requirements of Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2016.