There’s no ‘fixing’ prices in Punjab

SIALKOT: The Sialkot District Price Control Committee has failed to ensure the implementation of fixed prices for daily use items. The aim of the committee has been to provide maximum financial relief to the people, as the shopkeepers were selling daily use items at exorbitant rates in Sialkot, Daska, Sambrial, Uggoki, Pasrur, Badiana, Chawinda and surrounding areas, neglecting the official rate lists.

This practice continues unchecked in spite of the price control committee’s efforts to monitor prices in the reason. According to pricing officials, butchers were selling mutton at a rate of Rs 450 per kg and beef at Rs200 to Rs250 per kg, chicken at Rs180 to Rs190 per kg, while Daal Maash has been removed from most markets and is being hoarded in stock, as shopkeepers are creating an artificial shortage in the open market. Some shopkeepers have been selling Daal Maash at Rs320 to Rs350 per kg.

Citizens’ Rights Forum chairman Dr Muneer Butt and Sialkot Markazi Anjuman Sarifeen Khawaja Tariq Mehmood president urged the

Gujranwala division commissioner Hashim Tareen and Sialkot DCO Mujahid Sher Dil to reactivate the price control committee and monitor its activities. “Ordinary people can no longer afford basic groceries and shopkeepers are fleecing customers,” Butt said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20th, 2010.