Pulawo kabab outlet staff humiliates govt team monitoring ban on plastic bags
Zubair Qureshi
The management of Savour Foods—Islamabad and Rawalpindi’s popular pulawo kabab chain that has now opened its outlet in Lahore as well—Tuesday surprisingly humiliated a senior lady official and other members of a joint team of Climate Change Ministry and District Administration that was visiting the outlet in Blue Area to monitor implementation of ban on plastic bags.
Director General of Pak Environment Protection Agency Farzana Altaf Shah was leading the team when the incident took place and members of the Savour Foods that is otherwise known for its politeness towards the customers behaved in an unruly way using foul language.
According to details, after banning plastic in the federal capital on Aug 14, Climate Change ministry had constituted various teams to monitor and sensitize the shopkeepers and customers over the negative impact of plastic bags on climate, surroundings as well as food itself and one of the team had selected to visit Savour Foods as part of its soft campaign.
However, it turned out to be a bad day for the officials of the ministry as they were manhandled, pushed and abused by the Savour Foods management that refused to remove plastic bags from its counters and instead yelled at the team and threatened of dire consequences.
The government team told them they had only come to inspect the if the food outlet was implementing ban on plastic bags however, its staff manhandled the inspection team and utterly refused to comply with ban orders.
According to a senior official of the ministry, the chief executive of the Pak-EPA, an Executive Agency under the Ministry of Climate Change, Ms. Farzana Altaf along with its staff, and officials of the district administration and police reached Savour Foods as part of its drive to ensure the implementation of ban on plastic shopping bags.
However, Savour Foods staff resorted to bullying and misbehaved with the entire inspection team including media. They also declined to act upon the orders with regard to banning the plastic bags.
Meanwhile, a heavy contingent of police was called to deal with the situation.
Adviser to PM on Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam while talking to Pakistan Observer said strict action would be taken.
Those who misbehaved with a respectable officer of the ministry and other staff members would be dealt with strictly as per law, said the adviser.
The government is fully committed to 100pc enforcement of the plastic bag ban and would not allow any miscreant to take law in hand. We are also lodging an FIR against the miscreants, he said.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat said action has been initiated. He assured that a FIR will be registered against culprits and they will be brought to justice.
