What purpose do state actors serve if their failure to perform forces courts to intervene in the public interest
LAHORE: We should thank the Islamabad High Court for their intervention, while listening to an appeal by sugar manufacturers, of fixing the interim retail price of sugar at Rs70 per kg even though it was being sold for Rs85 to Rs90 per kg. By the same token, the Peshawar High Court has ordered Petroleum Distribution companies to restore the normal supply within three days.
There exists several hundred bureaucrats, numerous departments, regulatory bodies and an elected executive, all paid for by taxpayers, to provide citizens basic rights, justice, security of life and property and provision of consumer items at affordable prices. What purpose do all of these state actors serve if their failure to perform the designated tasks, by design or incompetence, forces courts to intervene in the public interest. The federal government and NAB have been pursuing the so-called sugar mafia scam for several months, during which the retail price of sugar rose by almost Rs30 to Rs40 per kg. A commission was formed and an FIA team appointed to investigate. It held several high-level meetings while sugar prices kept on escalating even though initial investigations had established the cost of manufacturing to be approximately Rs52 per kg.
On top of all this, fuel hasn’t been available across the country. As per SOP, the Petroleum Distribution companies need to maintain a 10-day supply reserve. Yet fuel remained scarce for a considerable period of time. The PM ordered some relief by lowering petroleum retail prices for the second consecutive month while the petroleum ministry, which was initially in hibernation, finally woke up under the pressure and imposed a fine of a few crores, although profits from hoarding are said to be 10 to 20 times the penalty. Is there no one who can stop such arsonists from burning down the country?
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, June 13th, 2020.
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