A mafia which has very close liaison with the officials of USC and political loyalists of ruling parties arranges pre-qualification documents on hefty payments equally distributed amongst the “real” stake holders.
The sources said the USC has also issued show cause notices to 6 ghee and oil mills which supply commodity to the USC which are as follows; Oil World Pvt Ltd, Hafeez Iqbal Ghee Industries, Chitral Oil and Ghee Industries, Zakriya Enterprises, Sohail Ghee Enterprises and Waheed Hafeez Ghee & General Mills.
“We have lifted back stock from the outlets for its examination through Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) whereas replies from others are awaited and as we receive replies, action will be taken against them, said Managing Director USC Waseem Mukhtar while talking to Business Recorder.
Insiders claim that USC had declared 32 mills pre-qualified in Dec 2015 after starting process in Sep 2015. Most of the mills acquired pre-qualification with the “help” of senior USC officials.
The USC Board of Directors (BoD) had also recommended action against a few corrupt officials of the organisation but the ministry resisted the move with tooth and nail.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan in the hearing on Jan 5, 2017 in human rights case number 28260-S/2016 regarding supply of substandard and adulterated cooking oil through Utility Stores Corporation(USC) directed the USC and Ministry of Industries and Production to submit report/ comments before the apex court on Jan 12.
The secretary, Ministry of Industries and Production and managing director USC had appeared before the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Jan 5, 2017.
In connection with preparation of requisite report, the MD USC called on secretary Ministry of Science and Technology on Jan 5, 2017 and after detailed discussion had requested for the following; (i) Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) may be directed to give their expert opinion on the test reports of National Institute of health (NIH) about utility oil supplied by M/s Waheed Hafeez Ghee Mills (Pvt), Hattar, Haripur, and M/s Sohail Ghee Mills (Pvt), Hayatabad, Peshawar, to USC; (ii) and PSQCA may be requested to take samples of utility ghee and utility oil from USC warehouses and stores across Pakistan and submit the report before next date of hearing in the Supreme Court.
List of 32 ghee and oil companies which have applied for pre-qualification in USC, has been provided with the request that PSQCA should carry out physical inspection of these mills whether manufacturing process adopted for ghee and oil by these mills conform to the Pakistan standards’ or otherwise, the sources added.
The list of 32 ghee and cooking oil mills is as follows;M/s Hafeez Ghee and General Mills (Pvt) Limited Multan, M/s Shamim Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Bahawalpur,M/s Zainab Ghee & General Mills (Pvt) Limited Multan and M/s Zakariya Enterprises (Pvt) Limited Muzaffargarh M/s Agro Processor & Atmospheric Gases (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Ahmad Oil Industries (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Al Wakeel Oil and Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Hasanabdal, M/s Associated Industries (Pvt) Limited Nowshera, M/s Chitral Oil and Ghee Industries Lahore, M/s Enam Industries (Pvt) Limited Haripur, M/s Fahad Hammad Oil & Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Faisalabad Oil Refinery (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Habib Oil Mills (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Hafeez Iqbal Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited, Hattar, Haripur, M/s Ifco Pakistan (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Ikram Yaqoob Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Karachi ,M/s Khadija Edible Oil Refinery (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Mehboob Industries (Pvt) Limited Lahore, M/s MM Alam & Co Faisalabad, M/s Mujahid Oil Refinery (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Oil World (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Pakistan Oil Mills (Pvt) Limited Hyderabad , M/s Paracha Textile Mills (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Prime Oil & Ghee Mills Gujranwala , M/s Punjab Oil Mills (Pvt) Limited Islamabad, M/s Qamar Oil Mills, Lahore, M/s Rahat Ghee Mills (Pvt) Limited Raiwind, Lahore, M/s Shamim Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Bahawalpur, M/s Shujabad Agro Industries (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Sohail Vegetable Ghee Mills (Pvt) Limited Peshawar, M/s Waheed Hafeez Ghee Industries (Pvt) Limited Karachi, M/s Yaqoob Oil Processing & Extracting Mills (Pvt) Limited Karachi, .
The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production observed on a number of occasions that USC is selling substandard products and directed the management to improve the quality of products but the mafia’s chain starting from headquarters to stores and godowns in the USC never bothered to pay heed to the instructions from the parliamentary penal.
However, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production headed by MNA Asad Umar never raised the issue of quality.
