Eleven Members of a Fort Abbas Family Hospitalised After Drinking Milk Supplied Under the School Milk Programme

Eleven members of one family in Fort Abbas have been taken to hospital after falling ill from drinking milk they say came home from a government school under the school milk programme run by the Punjab chief minister.

The family lives in village 186/7-R at Khichiwala, in Bahawalnagar district. Rescue 1122 said seven of them, women and children among them, first fell ill on the evening of October 20 and were given first aid before being moved to hospital. A Khichiwala police report put the number affected at 11 and said they arrived in a semi-conscious state. The eldest was Abdul Rehman, 76; the youngest, Arsalan and Abdul Hadi, are both seven.

In a video now circulating on social media, Abdul Sattar, one of the family, said his daughter had brought the milk home from the Government Girls Primary School in the village and that the whole household fell ill after drinking tea made with it. He wants officials to establish whether the milk was expired or contaminated, and to act against whoever is responsible. The family says nobody from the education or health departments has contacted them about testing the milk.

The district education officer’s report of October 21 tells a different story. It says 132 of the school’s 155 pupils drank the milk distributed there and none reported feeling unwell, and that 119,915 children across the district receive milk under the programme every day without a single case of food poisoning so far. The district’s chief executive officer for education, Dr Attaur Rehman, said an inquiry had found no problem with the quality of the milk, and that the cartons in the family’s possession carry an expiry date of January 12, 2027.