LAHORE - The chief analyst of food laboratory told the Lahore High Court on Wednesday that the laboratory has no gadget to check the adulteration of milk. However, there was a team of skilled persons that manually check the samples of milk, the chief analyst said appearing before the court of Justice Mian Saqib Nisar who was hearing the petition challenging the supply of adulterated milk for human consumption. He also denied a report published in a local newspaper which claimed that 80 per cent milk supplied to the older, younger and babies consumers is poisonous and source of their deaths. He said the city district government never issued such a report. At this the judge summoned the reporter of the newspaper who published the said news item regarding supply of the adulterated milk. The judge also appointed a senior lawyer Shahzad Shaukat as local commission to inspect the samples of milk at food laboratory and report to the court on Thursday (today). Before leaving the local commission, the judge directed the courts secretary to confiscate the cell phones of lab representatives present in courtroom so that they could not inform the lab officials about commissions visit. The judge also directed the secretary health to appear on Thursday (today). The petition was filed by Dr Muhammad Yaqoob Bhatti, Central Executive Member of Watan Party Pakistan, through his counsel Barrister Zafarullah Khan. The counsel said that a very alarming situation appeared and reported by the city district government food department and also published in national press that 80 per cent milk supplied to the market is poisonous and is source of their deaths. He said according to data out of 19,718 samples of milk collected by the food department in the last five years, almost 17,529 samples were found adulterated. This means that all the milk consumed by the Lahorites was almost 80 per cent adulterated or contaminated milk and virtually poisonous. The counsel relied upon a report published in a daily English newspaper on Feb-04, 2009 which stated that the dairy farms, milk supplying companies and other sources add various chemicals and unhygienic materials in the milk. Percentage of adulterants includes urea, or melamine (30 per cent), sub-standard cooking oil (70 per cent), powdered singharas (40 per cent), unhygienic water (50 per cent), formalin, a chemical used by doctors to preserve human body (35 per cent), penicillin for enhancing the thickness and fragrance of milk (47 per cent), hair removing powder (29 per cent), zoonotic pathogens (27 per cent), and other adulterants including soda bicarbonate to improve the taste, urea to lend it uniformity and melamine are added as protein booster. Barrister Zafarullah pointed out that this tainted milk is being sold since last many years in Pakistan and nobody seemed to have taken any effective step to supply the clean milk and the respondents seemed to have unmoved by the consequences and melamine has caused kidney stones or kidney failure, especially among infants, which is added to the milk in order to lower the costs. The counsel prayed to the court that the supply of suck milk be stopped forthwith for human consumption and all such supplies and corporation be banned immediately.