PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday expressed displeasure over the continuous increase in the prices of essential items and directed the provincial government and district administrations to ramp up efforts to bring prices under control.

Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Lal Jan Khattak warned that if the government failed to control the situation, it would be left with no option but to summon the chief minister and food minister.

The bench sought a report from the government about its steps to control the prices of commodities.

It fixed Oct 22 for the next hearing into a petition of lawyer Saeed Akhundzada seeking orders for the government to ensure the availability of wheat flour on the market at normal rates.

The petitioner claimed that it had become impossible for the people to purchase essential commodities, especially wheat flour, due to the exorbitant prices.Justice Qaiser Rashid observed that people were at a loss whether they should buy wheat flour at the rate of Rs75 per kg or tomatoes at Rs200 per kg.

Warns to summon CM, food minister if situation doesn’t improve

He added that the government had been acting like a silent spectator over price hike and it appeared as if it was made hostage by different mafias.

The bench observed that the relevant officers had been sitting in offices and not going to the field to ascertain the hardships through which people had been passing.

Peshawar deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Asghar told the bench that the administration had been holding meetings on a daily basis and had arrested scores of shopkeepers over profiteering.

He also said teams were visiting markets to check price hike.

The bench wondered if the prices had been controlled, then why a bag of 20kg wheat flour was sold for Rs1,500.

The deputy commissioner said the official rate had been fixed for wheat flour and wheat quota was provided by the government to flour mills for it.

He also said the dealers had been importing flour from Punjab on their own and had been selling that flour at higher rates.

The deputy commissioner said there were many spots across Peshawar city, where the wheat flour was easily available at the subsidised rate.

The bench directed him to publish advertisements in major newspapers about the points, where flour is sold at cheap rates.

It observed that if the government published advertisements for own publicity over the plantation of few trees, why that couldn’t happen for making the people aware of such flour sale points.

Additional advocate general Syed Sikander Hayat Shah assured the court that the government would ramp up its efforts to tackle the price issue and would produce a comprehensive report in that respect.

The bench observed that the report should not be an eyewash and the government should bring the situation under control before the next hearing into the case.

It added that the government should take stern action against the ‘mafias’ involved in hiking the prices of essential items, especially flour and vegetables.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2020