The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the petition of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association challenging the Karachi commissioner’s notification with regard to fixing the price of mutton in the city.Ghayasuddin Qureshi and other office-bearers of the Meat Merchants Welfare Association had impugned in their petition the March 18 notification announcing the price of mutton within the limits of Karachi.
They requested that the court allow them to sell meat at a higher retail price, and that it restrain the official functionaries from taking any coercive action against them.After the perusal of the petition, an SHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M Sheikh and Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed said that the only grounds advanced in the petition was that the petitioners had not been consulted prior to the issuance of the impugned notification with regard to fixing the price of mutton.
The court said that during the course of submission, the petitioners’ counsel could not point out any provision of law to substantiate the assertion that consultation with the petitioners was necessary or otherwise advance any argument as to any defect in the impugned notification justifiable under Article 199 of the constitution.
The bench said that the petitioners appear to be misconceived and devoid of force, and dismissed the petition with other pending miscellaneous applications.The Karachi commissioner on March 18 had notified the price of chicken meat at Rs356 per kilogramme and mutton at Rs1,220 per kilogramme after consulting with the stakeholders.
