KARACHI: While the government has reduced prices of certain items as part of its Ramazan package, representatives of political parties demanded that the government provide real relief to the people by curbing profiteering, introducing a strong price-control mechanism at the traders’ and wholesalers’ level and ensuring the availability and quality of the subsidised products.

Contrary to the government claims about reducing the prices of some 43 items, the prices of vegetables, fruits, syrups, spices, milk and essential items in markets have increased.

Not only the opposition parties, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and its coalition partner, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, also agreed about the need for an effective mechanism to curb profiteering.

PPP Senator Saeed Ghani said that all divisional commissioners and their subordinate officers had been directed to take strict action not only against the retailers but also against the wholesalers and suppliers if found involved in hoarding and profiteering.

He said that these orders were given by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and the authorities were told to ensure that the benefits of the Ramazan package announced by the government should reach to the common man.

MQM’s Khwaja Izhar-ul-Hasan said that the retail prices could not be controlled until a mechanism was evolved to check and stabilise the prices of commodities, including milk, at the farm and wholesale level.

He said in the absence of an elected local government system all exercises to curb profiteering would fail. “The practice of imposing fines on shopkeepers and vendors cannot bear good fruits,” he added.

Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Shaharyar Mahar told Dawn that every year the government left the people at the mercy of profiteers and hoarders since there was no effective price-control mechanism.

Commenting on the price-hike of essential commodities, he said that the subsidy announced by the government was not enough. Traders and middle men would take full advantage of the subsidised items only because of the poor performance of the government, he added..

He said that the government should set up special Ramazan bazaars to provide relief to the people because the authorities could effectively control prices in such bazaars.

Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf lawmaker Hafeezuddin was of the view that the prices could be controlled if the government monitored the rates of vegetables and fruits at the wholesale level. “Retailers will increase their prices if they would have pay more to the traders or wholesalers,” he added.

Saleem Zia, a senior leader of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in Sindh, said that both the federal and provincial government had announced Ramazan packages for the people. However, the success of these packages was solely depend on officials responsible for curbing profiteering, he added.

He said that traders indulged in profiteering only when they found that the officials were looking elsewhere.

City chief of the Jamaat-i-Islami Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman said that the prices of fruits and vegetables had increased between 100 and 120 per cent compared to the last year.

He condemned the price hike and the government’s failure to curb it and said that the government was going to increase the prices of petroleum products from July 1 and this step would make the life of a common man more miserable.

Meanwhile, a price control committee headed by additional commissioner-2, Karachi has fixed the price of 75 items, including rice, spices, dried fruits. Of the 75 items, the prices of 43 products had been, said a handout issued from the commissioner’s office on Sunday.

In Karachi, bachat bazaars were being set up at 128 places where fruits and vegetable stalls were set up. It said that in 2013, fines were imposed on over 32,000 shopkeepers and Rs52.9 million was recovered from them. About 1,000 shopkeepers were jailed for profiteering last year, it added.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2014