Penalty for PFA officers shows Lahore is pork-free

Two officials who conducted the raid failed to provide accurate input.

LAHORE: Both Punjab Food Authority officers who levelled false allegations over the sale of pig or donkey meat have been deemed unfit for field duty, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The PFA, which is still struggling to shrug off the pig or donkey meat debacle, has finally punished both officers involved in the entire episode. Before an inquiry committee, the two confessed they were not present at the sight of the raid which unearthed the meat. In their statements, these officials accused the then PFA Operations Director Ayesha Mumtaz for leading the operation and taking these decisions.

The inquiry, however, fixed the responsibility on these officers, saying they were the technical experts on the subject and failed to provide the necessary input to their senior raiding officer. The committee, therefore, exonerated Ayesha Mumtaz from the entire episode.



The inquiry was initiated to stop its staff from jumping the gun and leveling unfounded allegations over the sale of pig or donkey meat and damaging the repute of Punjab’s eateries. PFA issued a show cause notice on February 27, 2017, to two food safety officers involved in the case. Both the officers accompanied Mumtaz in the operations.

The notices referred to misconduct, inefficiency, and misuse of authority. They were questioned over charges of erroneously declaring meat seized from Lahore Railway Station as ‘haram’, even prior to the results of test reports.

According to the notice, their error spread panic among the masses and created a bad name for the city, province and country on the national and international level. The incident occurred on September 2, 2015, when an FIR was registered against a vendor for bringing pork into Lahore.

“PFA officials carried out a raid near the Lahore Railway Station and recovered a huge quantity of suspicious produce after receiving reports of pig meat being supplied to the city,” Director General PFA Ayesha Mumtaz said at the time. She added the authority had been receiving reports for some time that haram meat was being supplied to food joints in the adjoining areas of Lahore.



The report sparked anger and disappointment not just in the city, but throughout the country. However, the accused were acquitted by a court after the allegations were found to be baseless. IntertTek and UVAS laboratories, which tested the suspicious samples, also rejected the PFA’s claims.

This was not the first time PFA came under the spotlight for spreading such allegations. Since the inception of the PFA in 2012, five FIRs have been lodged against the sale of meat from pigs, donkeys or horses.  Lahoris being served pig and donkey meat became a national joke at the time and the thought still haunts foodies venturing out for a quick bite.

With Lahore’s food culture being mocked, PFA officers, under the new administration of Director General Noorul Amin Mengal, issued an order on January 31, 2017. It directed the authority’s officers to refrain from making any public statements or declarations about food sourcing without verified lab reports to back them up.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2017.