Australia exported 21,000 sick sheep to Pakistan

Editorial:THE FRONTIER POST

Import of sick sheep

Who could have imagined that a first world country like Australia would export some 21,000 sick sheep to Pakistan? True that Australians private sector is free in trading its commodities and its government does not interfere in its activity, but what about a host of laws that govern its foreign trade? Why the whole legal regime in fair business did not apply on sending defaulted consignments to the third world countries like Pakistan? This seems a deliberate attempt of fraud because Australians have also tried to export sick livestock to other countries. International media reports suggest that Bahrain imported 22,000 sheep from this Australian company, the Wellard Rural Exports. But after feeling suspicion that the sheep were afflicted by a lethal disease like skim mouth, Bahrain did not allow to offload those sheep at its port. Later, the Australian company tried to sell those sheep to many other countries including Kuwait but none bought them. Finally those sheep were imported by a private Pakistani firm, the PK Livestock and Meat Company and kept the herd at its farm at Razzaqabad, Malir, Karachi. About a month ago, another Pakistani company imported over 20 thousand Australian cows and it was later known that the animals were sick when the world media, including that of Australia, reported facts about the diseased livestock. Ironically, the Sindh Livestock Department collected samples of imported sheep and sent to the National Veterinary Laboratory for examination and the premier veterinary institute gave the local firm and its herd a clean bill of health although it was later found that the sheep were suffering from foot-and-mouth disease and were also inflicted by some dangerous virus as well. During this waiting period, rumors continued airing that Australian sheep were not healthy. But the importing firm, after the media cry, was still caught in two minds in deciding whether the stock should be sent back or stealthily sold in the local market. The Australian High Commission in Pakistan said that the sheep were disease-free but the international media exposed its claim that animals were suffering from a lethal disease. After the scandal became known the world over and Sindh government had also ordered the culling of the sick sheep, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has also ordered an inquiry into the import of thousands of diseased sheep with a direction to the Sindh government to hold an inquiry into the whole affair seeking report within one week to identify those responsible for the illegal act. Simultaneously, the importing company and government functionaries started the culling process at the Sindh Vaccine Poultry Centre and Tando Jam Central Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the latest report says some 700 of the sheep have so far been slaughtered and their waste disposed off. Holding an inquiry should be welcomed but such investigation by the government will not be above suspicion particularly after Sindh Livestock Department giving clearance to the consignment soon after its arrival from Australia and before media pointed out its accusing finger on the fishy deal. If a genuine report is required and the government really wants truth to emerge, a judicial investigation is a must. This process will have a popular acknowledgment, too. The inquiry should not only be held about the whole scandalous affair of involving the livestock importing company but also drag in the Sindh Livestock Department and the National Veterinary Laboratory for giving their declaration of the diseased animals as healthy. It is also pertinent to expose the Australian company in the fray, the Australian government and its high commission in Pakistan. The world should know that the state that claims clean administration, rule of the law and fair trade, has been engaged in illegal and unhealthy practices, not only now but also in the past. For this examples of Bahrain and Kuwait seem sufficient. Perhaps, the so-called economically developed countries think they have the right to hoodwink and deceive countries which have fewer industrial development.