Culling of Australian sheep starts again after court disposes the case

The process of culling the infected Australian sheep has resumed on Friday after PK Meat and Food withdrew its petition to the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the federation of Pakistan and others unconditionally on Thursday.

The importer, Tariq Mehmood Butt, had earlier sought a stay order from the SHC against the culling of the livestock, challenging the report of the Sindh Poultry Vaccine Centre, which was the basis on which authorities ordered the culling of his sheep.

The process of disposing off the sheep is underway under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner Malir while 200 security men of Razzakabad Polcie Training Center have been deployed for security purpose.

According to the reports, as many as 11,306 the diseased sheep will be disposed off after slaughtering.

Earlier, the petitioner who purchased a consignment of 21,000 Australian sheep that had been rejected by the Bahrain government in August contending that the animals were healthy and he prayed that the court restrain government functionaries from harassing or arresting him in the case.

Around 8,000 sheep had already been culled by the time the SHC intervened in the matter.

The government confirmed through the Pakistani Embassy in Bahrain that the kingdom had rejected the consignment of livestock after Orf disease was detected in the animals.

In quite a surprising move, Counsel for PK Meat and Food Adnan Memon submitted before the SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar, that his client had asked him to withdraw the case without mentioning any specific reasons.

When asked if there was any form of a threat from the authorities, the lawyer simply replied that he was given clear instructions from the petitioner to withdraw the case. Neither the counsels of the Australian exporter nor the federal and provincial governments opposed the application.

The court, after taking the statement of the petitioner’s counsel on record, dismissed the case along with the listed application.

However, it directed the provincial government, IG Sindh, DG Rangers and the chief secretary to ensure that no harm was caused to Tariq Mehmood Butt and that the petitioner, along with his family, were provided with adequate security.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 19 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.