Milk prices: SHC decides to hear all petitions together

HRCSA challenged an increase in milk prices while dairy farmers ask court to urge government to increase prices.

KARACHI:

All petitions for and against the rise in milk prices will be heard together, decided the court on Thursday.

A division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), comprising Chief Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Syed Hasan, also issued notices of the hearing to the Karachi DCO, the Revenue EDO and the Dairy Farmers Association for an unspecified date.

Earlier, the bench heard the counsel for NGO Human Rights Commission for South Asia (HRCSA) and Dairy Farmers Association. The HRCSA had challenged the increase in milk prices while the dairy farmers have asked the court to direct the city government to increase the prices further because fodder, water, medicines, transportation, etc., have become costlier.

The NGO said that milk supplied in Karachi is laced with hazardous stabilisers to increase its shelf life. The petitioner’s lawyer asked for an urgent hearing because he believed the prices will be increased by Rs2 in the next few days.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2011.