Administrative affairs: Punjab Food Authority’s role curtailed

PFA barred from inspecting wheat quality, issuing flour mills licences

LAHORE:

The government has barred the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) from checking the quality of wheat stored at flour mills and issuing them licences, a Food Department official said on Friday.

The government had established the PFA in 2012 under the Punjab Food Authority Act 2011.

It was tasked with ensuring food safety and quality in collaboration with manufacturers, food business operators and consumers.

The authority’s functions include formulation and enforcement of food safety and quality standards, registration and licensing of food manufactures and outlets and laboratory accreditation of eatable items. Its operational jurisdiction was initially limited to Lahore. It was later extended to Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Multan divisions.

The PFA had recruited a food safety officer to inspect wheat quality and cleanliness arrangements at flour mills under Section 2 of the Act.

The officer asked the management of flour mills to get fresh licences from the authority under Clause 15(2) of the Act failing which their factories would be sealed.

Several flour mills’ owners raised the issue with the Food Department. The department then sent a summary to the chief minister recommending that powers to check quality control of wheat products be given to the Punjab Food Directorate.

It also recommended that flour mills be exempted from getting fresh licences. The food grain licence is issued by the district food controller under the Food Control Licensing Order, 1957.

The Food Department said issuance of licences by the PFA would result in duplicity creating administrative problems.

In the first week of February, the chief minister constituted a four-member to resolve the issue. Its members included the food minister, the agriculture minister, the food secretary and Zafar Iqbal Qureshi.

The committee held several meetings with the flour mills’ association.

It concluded that any duplication in the regulatory mechanism of flour mills might affect the supply of flour.

It called for restricting the PFA’s powers saying that the food directorate dealt with issues related to wheat quota, stock management wheat flour prices.

“Acting on the recommendations, the chief minister curtailed the PFA’s domain, although the authority had been established under an act passed by the assembly,” the official said requesting anonymity.

“A majority in the House can amend the Act… the chief minister cannot do so on a summary of an administrative department,” a senior officer from the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Department said on condition of anonymity.

Food Secretary Muhammad Aslam Kamboh said the PFA’s powers had been restricted to avoid duplicity of functions.

“It has been done on a temporary basis. The PFA will again be able to check wheat quality and issue licenses when its start functioning across the province,” the secretary told The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2014.