RAWALPINDI: As more and more shopkeepers across the garrison city violate official rate lists due to lack of oversight, the divisional administration has claimed to have penalized over 800 violators in almost 30,000 raids across the six district of Rawalpindi.

The rates of perishable and non-perishable items have overshot in Ramazan and the efforts by the administration to keep a lid on these prices through price magistrates have not produced substantial results. In a meeting held on Saturday, the Rawalpindi commissioner ordered stringent steps to control prices in all districts, including Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Talagang, and Murree.

The review meeting, held at the commissioner’s office, was attended by Additional Deputy Commissioner General Dr Hassan Tariq, Director of Local Government Syed Sabtain, and other officials. The official said that profiteers and hoarders deserved no leniency for creating inconveniences for the general public.

“Price magistrates should ensure their presence in critical bazaars. The activities of price magistrates should not be targeting a specific place; rather, they should take action across the board,” he said. The meeting was informed that the number of price magistrates deployed across the division was 181 and 30,753 inspections had been conducted during the past 24 hours. In these visits, 860 violations were identified, leading to the registration of one FIR.

Admin says more than 800 shopkeepers penalised, 80 shops sealed

The authorities also imposed a fine of Rs690,000, sealed 80 shops, and detained 102 people during the inspections.

For instance, the rates of poultry in Rawalpindi increased as soon as Ramazan started. The residents of the garrison city expressed resentment over the prices, stating that it was a failure of the administration. However, the shopkeepers said that the demand had increased in Ramazan and the low production rate was affecting the rates. According to a report in this paper published on Friday, the price of a kilogramme of live chicken was Rs412 while meat was sold for Rs597/kg.

Similarly, price hikes and overcharging are rampant in markets of the federal capital, where shopkeepers are not willing to follow the official price list despite the crackdown by the administration.

Moreover, under the Punjab Socio-Economic Registry (PSER), the progress in the distribution of the Rs10,000 pay order among deserving people was reviewed.

The briefing regarding the delivery of this package said that there are a total of 27,9438 people registered in Rawalpindi Division. So far, the division has received 27,3876 pay orders, of which 26,2080 have been delivered so far.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025