KARACHI: The city commissioner informed the Sindh High Court on Tuesday that a draft to establish the Sindh Food Authority had been prepared and was being scrutinised by the law department.

The commissioner through an assistant advocate general filed his comments before a two-judge bench of the SHC on a petition seeking reduction in prices of dairy products and formation of a task force to regulate prices.

He submitted that due to better communication, transportation and advancement in technology it had become very difficult to have different sets of prices for each district, adding that milk price not only depended on various inputs, but also the price of one product in a district may vary from the price of the same product in another district because of its transport cost.

He maintained that fixing prices for such commodities in a district had become very difficult and a time-consuming activity and it had also led to the emergence of various pressure and vested interest groups to destabilise the pricing pattern from time to time.

The commissioner further said that price fixing mechanism at the federal and the provincial levels had played a vital role in regulating the prices of various commodities, adding that the offices of deputy and assistant commissioners were authorised as price magistrates to ensure enforcement of notified prices under the provincial and federal laws.

However, he contended that being officers from administrative cadres they were generally more effective on enforcement side while fixing of prices required technical expertise with relevant knowledge of commodities, market fluctuations and other factors.

The commissioner suggested that the court might consider advising the government to have a truly empowered technical body at the provincial level with an effective control over various markets and comprising experts from all relevant fields to review and fix prices of essential commodities periodically.

On a previous hearing, the SHC had expressed grave concern over the inefficiency of the provincial authorities in checking prices and quality of food items and directed the provincial government to immediately establish the Sindh Food Authority.

A civil rights campaigner had petitioned the SHC contending that the increase in milk price was unjust in view of decreasing prices of petroleum products in international and local markets.

According to the petitioner, an SHC bench on Aug 23, 2013 directed the city commissioner and other respondents to devise a mechanism to control and maintain the prices of dairy products, including milk.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016