Pak SC settles bitter battle over humble samosa

Jul 26, 2012 |

Islamabad

Tags:

Alas! The days of cheap samosas in Pakistan are over.

Ending a legal wrangle over the price of the humble samosa, the Supreme Court has set aside a notification of the Punjab government whereby the price of one 'samosa' was fixed at Rs 6.

The samosa, till early this week, was caught up in a legal tussle between the provincial government and Punjab Bakers and Sweets Federation. In 2009, the City District Government Lahore had fixed price of one samosa at Rs 6 and magistrates imposed fine on shopkeepers for selling the same at a higher price.

The Punjab Bakers and Sweets Federation, through its President Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal, had challenged this order at the time, but the LHC had dismissed the petition.

The petitioner moved an appeal in the Supreme Court Lahore Registry arguing that Samosa is not an item notified under the Punjab Foodstuffs (Control) Act 1958; therefore, its price cannot be fixed by the provincial government.

The Punjab government's counsel submitted that the government had the power to fix prices of items that were being sold to the public at large. The apex court, however, allowed the appeal of Punjab Bakers and Sweets and set aside the impugned notification on Tuesday.

The samosas are consumed with great relish by Pakistanis around the year but the sales skyrocket during Ramzan as it is a staple of the Iftar spread.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/175057" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-1d172b1f4c8b43694e24531e0ee46fa0" value="form-1d172b1f4c8b43694e24531e0ee46fa0" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="81690018" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>