Quality regulation: PFA looks to extend checks to four cities

Summaries on this have been sent to govt .

LAHORE:

Punjab Food Authority is looking to expand its jurisdiction to Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi and Multan in the next fiscal year. Three summaries in this regard have been sent to the provincial government, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Well placed officials said the first summary had requested clearance from the Austerity Committee to purchase vehicles for the PFA. Officials said that an earlier request sent last year had been turned down. The summary is yet to get an approval from the chief minister, they said.

In another summary, the PFA requested revalidation of around Rs90 million which had been issued to the PFA to expand its offices in 2013-2014. The PFA has now asked for revalidation of the allocation to proceed with the expansion.

Another summary requests permission from the government to expand jurisdiction to the four cities. Officials said in three meetings held earlier this year, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif urged the PFA to expand jurisdiction to other major cities. He also ordered the formation of a task force to oversee the PFA’s expansion.

Earlier in 2013, the PFA had tried to extend its work to Faisalabad City and planned to expand to the other cities. However, a myriad of issues ranging from hiring officials to shortage of funds did not allow the PFA to expand, said the officials.

This year, the PFA has been granted around Rs40 million as seed money for the association’s fourth year 2015-16. The PFA had been operating in Lahore with around Rs87 million seed money over the last three years. The PFA decided to request more seed money this year for its plans to expand operations.

PFA Finance Deputy Director Muhammad Saqib said the request for expansion had been moved to the provincial government. He said it was now up to the government to decide the fate of the summary and decide to whether or not to allow the PFA to expand its jurisdiction.

The PFA was established on July 2, 2012, and has, till now, been unable to extend its operations to cities other than Lahore. During the tenure of PFA’s former director general Asad Islam Mahani, plans to expand the PFA to Faislabad, Multan, Rawalpindi, Gurainwala, Kasur and Nankana Sahib were shared with the media. However none of the plans materialised. PFA officials, now, hope that the authority would extend its operations especially since the chief minister has started taking keen interest in the authority’s workings.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2015.