Crackdown: Manager says eateries sealed as punishment for refusal to serve

PFA rejects allegation, says Fort Road restaurants were sealed over violations

LAHORE: The management of a Fort Road restaurant has alleged that the Punjab Food Authority sealed their premises and two other restaurants in the vicinity to punish them for refusal by one of the eateries to serve a Chinese delegation.

Coocu’s Den managing director Ibrar Hussain said his restaurant had been sealed without any prior warning. He said the raiding team had refused to review his licence and medical certificates for staff and closed down the restaurant. He said the team had refused to give any reason for the action. He said he believed storage of medicine by a staff member in one of the refrigerators used for keeping food products was the only violation of standards observed by the raiding team. “How can they seal the restaurant over such a minor violation? They didn’t pay attention to the high standard of hygiene at the premises,” he said.

Hussain said a day before the raid, some provincial government officers, accompanying a Chinese delegation, had quarreled with management of another restaurant on the road after they were refused service on grounds that there was no space at the restaurant’s rooftop dining area to accommodate more customers. He said the visitors had threatened the management with dire consequences for refusing to serve them.

The manager of the restaurant where the alleged encounter took place refused comment. However, he did say that the raiding team had sealed the restaurant without justification. He said the PFA had not issued them a warning before sealing the premises.

He said the restaurant’s kitchen was accessible to anyone wishing to inspect safety and cleanliness standards.

PFA Operations Director Ayesha Mumtaz dismissed the allegation that the restaurants on Fort Road were sealed over a row between provincial government officers and the management of one of the restaurants. She said the raiding team had sealed these businesses on violation of food safety standards.

Further, Coocu’s Den manager alleged that some Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) officers had been regularly enjoying free meals at his restaurants. He said that rather than intervening on behalf of the restaurants, the WCLA had remained silent over the PFA action.

WCLA spokesperson Tania Qureshi rejected that any officer of the authority had dined at the restaurant without paying up.

She said personnel from the authority visited the restaurants for monitoring purposes only. She said after the sealing of three restaurants by the PFA the authority had directed its monitoring teams to be more vigilant during their inspection visits.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2015.