LAHORE: Deputy Prime Minister Pervaiz Elahi has said the Punjab government’s Ramazan bazaars are “wearing a deserted look due to high prices and mismanagement.”

He warned that any mill supplying substandard flour would be blacklisted.

“The people complaining about high prices of articles in Ramazan bazaars of Khadim-i-A’ala are being baton-charged,” he told reporters at the State Guest House here on Sunday. He said the Sargodha DCO had ordered closure of a Ramazan bazaar of the Utility Stores Corporation because of rush. He said flour being sold at Ramazan bazaars was of poor quality and prices of all items were high, urging the media to visit the utility stores to review his department’s working.

Pervaiz regretted that Shahbaz Sharif did not agree on Chaudhry Shujaat’s formula to control loadshedding.

Earlier, presiding over a meeting, the deputy prime minister said good quality of articles with comparatively low prices at the utility stores had resulted in increased sales. He said a cell had been established, headed by Basharat Raja, for monitoring the working of the utility stores.

He said the federal ministers, parliamentarians and party leaders had been asked to visit the utility stores. He said he would also pay surprise visits to these facilities. He said mobile units were functioning in Mardan, Bannu, Balochistan and Fata where utility stores were not set up. He said there would be no compromise on quality of all items. He said that during his meeting with the owners of the flour mills he had made it clear that any mill supplying substandard flour would be blacklisted forever.

He said the employees of the utility stores would be given one-month bonus on successful execution of the Ramazan package.

He said the proposal to give more discounts at utility stores to TB patients and Benazir Income Support Programme card holders was being examined.