Sindh Food Authority meeting concludes undecidedly about new appointments

KARACHI: The Sindh Food Authority (SFA) emergency meeting on Monday, in the wake of deaths of two children in Karachi after having poisonous food at an eatery, concluded without any result as it could not decide about appointments of food inspectors in the department, ARY News reported.

Director SFA Abrar Sheikh said since the Authority was a new department, therefore it would take some time for appointments to take place.

It is pertinent to mention that the Sindh Food Authority Act was ratified in April 2017. Under this Act, the SFA was to be established to ensure safety and standards of food across the province.

As per the information received by ARY NEWS, the authority remains completely dysfunctional and has utterly failed to exercise its powers despite passing of seven months to its creation while shortage of the food inspectors in the authority, has dwindled its ability of conducting raids at the hotels and food outlets to ensure hygienic conditions in the eateries.

Read More: Post-mortem confirms food poisoning as cause of minors’ death at Karachi restaurant

This is not all, the Sindh Food Authority even does not have its own laboratory for checking food samples, which are being examined at the private laboratories.

Earlier today, the postmortem report revealed that two kids who came for a dinner at a known restaurant at Zamzama died of food poisoning.

The kid’s health deteriorated soon after having dinner and they were rushed to hospital where they died shortly afterwards. One-year-old Ahmad, and five-year-old Muhammad, both sons of Ahsan were the residents of Creek Vista, DHA.

During the meeting, the director SBA said that despite passage of seven months even a feasibility report of laboratory could not be completed.

Sources said it was third meeting of the authority in seven months and the next session was expected in 10 days. No recommendation could be made in the meeting for new appointments, while private members of the board have sought time for recommendations about food inspectors.

Sources said six food inspectors were working with the government entity on temporary basis, while the SFA hired students from universities for raids at food outlets on daily wages