Syed Kamran Hashmi - Courtesy Statesman Peshawar
No sooner did my plane land at the Lahore Airport than I texted my friend we would have dinner at a nice restaurant. “Sure,” he typed in. “We will have a nice dinner...at home.” To tell you the truth, his response surprised me as Ahsan, 42, a general surgeon, is not one of those who turn down a meal offer easily, especially if it is free!
Anyway, he picked me up from the airport and took me straight to his home without mentioning anything about eating out. He had lost some weight, so it was natural for me to think he was weight-conscious and trying to avoid extra calories. But, at home, I realized the reason for him not going out was different: he was certain that the food served in the restaurants was substandard, unhygienic and harmful.
During the conversation, he also mentioned that he was concerned about the quality of raw meat being sold at the roadside shops. That is why on his last visit to his village, he got the whole goat slaughtered in front of him and split its meat between him and his sister, a practice he intended to continue.
Afterwards, I had to visit my relatives. “I don’t like to eat out anymore. It makes me nauseous,” my aunt, a bank executive, said. “I try to eat at home most of the times. The food is pure and fresh, you know.” I was taken aback by her concerns since this was not what my experience has been regarding the eating habits of Lahoris in the past. All my friends and family members, for as long as I remember, are more than ready to get up and get going to order some mutton karahi and chicken tikkas in a close-by restaurant. But, this time, they were reluctant. Something had changed. I just did not know what.
The same episode happened to me again after a couple of days when a close family friend refused to dine out. “We don’t know what these restaurant owners are feeding us, Kamran Bhai,” she said. “It could be the meat of dead animals or the donkeys and horses. In the worst case scenario, they might be butchering street dogs and stray cats, who knows?”
By this time, and by doing some Internet research, I had found out the person responsible for spoiling my trip to Lahore! It was no one other than the Director General Operations of the Punjab Food Authority (PFA),
Ayesha Mumtaz, a young but strict administrator, who has in the last few weeks shut down or fined more restaurants than the total number of eateries sealed in the last few years put together. She raids multiple locations in a single day and upon discovering poor hygienic conditions either closes them down or gives them a heavy ticket without any exemptions. On top of that, what she sees in these diners she shares with everyone through the social media. So there are pictures of restaurant kitchens on Facebook, the floors coated with dark thick layer of slippery grease that has accumulated over years, and serving plates scattered all over. The pots and pans, haphazardly strewn across the kitchen, are so dirty that I would not want my pets to eat in them, what to talk about a human being, the person who is paying and bringing the business. Then, there are photographs of rotten vegetables, black leaves of lettuce hanging down, potato wedges soaked in grayish white fluid, the raw meat tossed on the floor unprotected from cats, dogs and rodents. Moreover, you notice the deep freezers which look like dumpsters and the ovens presenting a picture of trash cans. Some uploads are so gory that I would want to put the ‘caution’ sign for the light-hearted individuals.
To my disbelief, nobody is spared from these inspections, not even the Avari and Pearl Continental hotels. And everyone is treated with the same yardstick without giving any concessions to the rich and powerful. Almost unimaginable are raids on the international franchises that act as holy cows and pretend as if they follow the strictest standards and procedures. They do not, as we caught them red-handed getting penalties for selling poor quality products.
After watching these pictures, it is obvious that people are eating out less frequently or have stopped altogether; but they admire the initiative and appreciate the courage and honesty demonstrated by the “Iron Lady.” True, they believe such measures should have taken place a long time ago but they welcome them nevertheless as a sign of good governance and as an indicator of democracy yielding its benefits. In this regards, they also acknowledge the efforts of Mian Shahbaz Sharif and his team who so far have stood behind the actions taken by the PFA even when pressure is mounting from the owners to stop the raids. Trust me, these restaurant owners are not common people like you and me, they have got deep pockets and long arms, so much so that they would have twisted the arms of Chief Minister if he was not Mian Shahbaz Sharif.
At any rate, the sad truth is that nobody thinks this process is going to last long. Lahoris know that sooner or later the CM will cave in, relieving the Director General from duties. She will either be transferred, suspended, jailed or exiled. The critics regard the whole undertaking as a political circus, another stunt of Shahbaz Sharif to fool ordinary folks. It's a one-man show. After him or her, things would turn back to ‘normal’ if a proper system to ensure long-term safety and quality is not put into place. Considering his record, I agree it is unlikely the CM would bring any permanent solution, instead, as before, he would invest heavily on building a personality cult. The question is: how, or if, we can change that.
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