RAWALPINDI, March 4: The acting district Nazim, Raja Javed Ikhlas, on Thursday called for stability in the prices of essential commodities. Speaking at a meeting on the consumption of poultry products , he said the traders should adopt a balanced approach towards pricing so that the prices of essential commodities could be kept within the purchasing power of the common man.

He assured the meeting that the district government would do its best to check profiteering. The district coordination officer, Hamid Ali Khan, said the district government was coordinating with the judiciary in its drive against price hike.

He said the profiteers had been fined and the drive would continue unabated. Mr Khan said prices of vegetables and cereals were high in Rawalpindi because it was a vegetable deficient area with very low cropping intensity.

The DCO said the district government had notified Rs5 per 20kg bag increase in the price of wheat flour. He said the quota of wheat supply to flour mills in Rawalpindi had been increased.

A Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) leader said the production cost of the bird was Rs45 per kilo and eggs was Rs22 per dozen. He suggested that the price of poultry bird should be maintained at Rs50 per kilo.

He said the lack of proper pricing mechanism at retailer level resulted in over-pricing of poultry products. Another PPA leader said the recent fall in poultry consumption had caused Rs3 to 4 billion loss to the poultry industry.