Amendments to Pure Food Rules 1965: Punjab government yet to issue notification

Despite passage of three years, the Punjab government has failed to issue notification pertaining to amendments to the Pure Food Rules 1965 in compliance with the standards set by Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA).
The Punjab Health Department had formed a committee comprising of Food Technologists, Researchers and representatives from the industry to critically examine all such products, elaborate their definitions, specify the technical standards in line with the standards stipulated by Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and International Food Standards.
It is pertinent here to mention that the Pure Food Rules 1965 were earlier revised in 2007 but a number of food products could not be included in this revision. The Unilever Advisor and Director Pakistan Halal Product Development Board, Basharat Ahmad, who also represented the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the committee, disclosed this while talking to Business Recorder here on Friday. He said that three secretaries in the Punjab Health Department have been changed since the constitution of the committee, but final document is still lying with the Punjab Law Department, he added.
He said the committee was comprised of highly professionals, technologists, and bureaucrats like Special Secretary Health, Director General Health, Head of the Institute of Public Health, Director General National Institute of Food Science and Technology, and Director PSQCA Karachi who worked extensively for finalisation of revised rules. The basic idea behind the efforts was to take into account all those products which have been missed out for one reason or the other neither revised/modified in the market subsequent to the revision of Food Rules.
The committee probed into the formulation of a number of food products, laid down their definitions, technical specifications. After two years' hectic efforts and deliberations, the committee agreed unanimously and prepared a draft consisting of a number of essential food products of daily use, available in the market. Finally the Health Department obtained signatures of all the members and thus completed the documents in all respect in July 2009 for necessary notification and their inclusion in the Food Rules.
On April 20, 2010, the Secretary Health, Fawad Hassan Fawad, was approached and requested to expedite the matter. As a result, the Additional Secretary Technical called another meeting of the stakeholders on April 29, 2010, and reviewed the draft once again for finalisation. Signatures of the committee members were also obtained the second time.
The same Secretary Health once again formed another technical committee in December 2010 headed by Professor Dr Rizwana Muzaffar to probe again and critically examine the proposals of the committee's experts. As a result of a number of meetings, the docket was finalised which was also signed by the participants on January 12, 2011. As such, the draft was reviewed, unanimously agreed and signed by all the participants for the third time.
However, the draft could not be processed further, and the Secretary Health, Punjab convened two more meetings on January 7 and 12, 2011, which were chaired by him and discussed each and every proposal at length and reached a unanimous conclusion. The next step was to just obtain the approval of the Punjab Chief Minister for issuance of notification that could not be issued till this date, Basharat Ahmad claimed.