Unfair pricing practices

ISLAMABAD: Recently, I was required to type and sign an undertaking on Rs20 stamp paper as part of my university admission process. I only needed three stamp papers, which would have basically cost me Rs60 in total.

I went to the F8 kachehri premises in Islamabad and walked to the first stamp paper vendor I could see. Upon asking for three Rs20 stamp papers, I was informed of their unavailability and instead was offered a Rs30 one.

Before handing over the stamp papers, the vendor told me that he will charge me Rs60 for one Rs30 stamp paper. Baffled, I inquired about the reason and was told of a possible price increase for stamp papers. Disappointed, I left his stall to look for another vendor.

The second vendor was charging Rs50 for the same Rs30 stamp paper. Realising that it’s useless to look for a vendor charging fair price I bought three Rs30 stamp papers for Rs50 from this vendor, which cost me Rs150 in total.

Lastly, I even got this vendor to notarise the blank stamp papers on which I was going to type the text, myself later at home. This made me realise that anyone could do the same and type according to their wish. How easy does that make fabricating legal documents?

Shah Rukh Khalid

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2017.

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