‘Tigers’ struggle to check hoarding
Opposition accuses govt of shifting core responsibilities to volunteers
Neither traders nor the Insaf Tiger Force (ITF) are happy over the government’s decision to deploy the volunteers to check increasing commodity prices and hoarding in markets across the country, The Express Tribune learnt on Wednesday.
On Tuesday ITF volunteers staged a protest demonstration in front of the Lahore Press Club and demanded of the authorities to provide legal cover to their services. They asked authorities to give respect to volunteer service.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan has given us the task of volunteer work. Earlier doctors were humiliating us and now traders are showing rude behaviour. We have been provided with the ITF caps and jackets but no legal authority is given to do volunteer work in the field,” highlighted Kamran Latif, an angry protester and a member of All Pakistan Tiger Force Tahfuz Movement.
Another ITF member, Muhammad Ilyas, said: “Though Prime Minister Imran Khan still believes in our volunteer work other leaders of the ruling party have forgotten our services during the 2014 Azadi March in Islamabad.”
He remarked that it was the ITF which provided security, rendered volunteer services and faced law enforcing agencies’ torture on the slogan of change. “Today, when our party is in power, we are facing humiliation on roads,” he lamented.
On the other hand, traders complained about undue interference of volunteers in their businesses. A trader, Zulfiqar Ali, alleged that earlier they had to deal with or bribe the local administration and now the government has “imposed the ITF lads upon us who know nothing about business or trade”.
Lahore Karyana Merchant Association President Rao Akram said the trading community rejects the government decision of sending ITF volunteers to check prices. It is the responsibility of the local administration.
“The government has employed an army of price control magistrates but it is asking volunteers to rein in commodity price.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, All Pakistan Anjuman Tajiran General Secretary Abdul Razzaq Babbar asked under which rule the government has deployed volunteers to check commodity prices in markets. “If the government wants to engage them for price control, it should empower them with magisterial power, he suggested.
During coronavirus lockdowns, he highlighted, city police and the ITF volunteers minted money from traders wanted to keep their businesses open. In Shahalam and other wholesale markets, they collect Rs1,000 to Rs1,500 daily from shopkeepers to keep their businesses open.
During former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s rule, Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) had done a similar experiment and allowed PPP volunteers to check police stations but the idea failed badly as it promoted corruption in the party, he indicated.
The other day, traders of Kasur district staged a protest against what they termed extortion of ITF volunteers. Earlier, doctors staged a protest against the immature and non-professional attitude of ITF volunteers. Social media platforms are also flooded with complaints against the ITF youth.
The opposition is also criticising the ruling party for transferring its core responsibilities to volunteers.
However, provincial minister Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said the government has tasked the ITF volunteers to assist the local administration in checking prices. “These volunteers cannot take any action on their own. If someone has an issue over their functioning, he can register a complaint and the government will take action as per law,” he said.
Speaking to the media, Senior PPP leader Khurshid Shah said asking the ITF volunteers to check prices is like trusting someone with a vested interest. Similarly, PPP leader Sherry Rehman said Prime Minister Imran Khans has tasked the ministers with attacking oppositions and their responsibilities have been transferred to ITF volunteers.
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Ameer Senator Sirajul Haq said every government has created its force which has ruined common men’s lives. The JIP will stage a strong protest against rising inflation which has made lives of people miserable, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 15th, 2020.
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