11 lawmakers to monitor Ramazan Bazaars

The government has decided to reinforce its army of officials supervising and monitoring the Ramazan Bazaars.

LAHORE: The provincial government has decided to reinforce its army of officials supervising and monitoring the Ramazan Bazaars and Ramazan Dastarkhawns with 11 Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) parliamentarians.

Around 1,100 price control magistrates, 200 Live Stock Department officials, 80 Food Department officers, 50 Food Inspectors, 120 Industries Department officials and more than 100 local government administrators, have already been assigned to the job.

The lawmakers will inspect and monitor the delivery and availability of subsidised commodities, their quality and their prices. The will also monitor the timings, numbers and performance of the stalls set up at the 400 Ramazan Bazaars, 200 fair price shops and 500 Sasti Roti Dastarkhwans in the Punjab. They will also review the security arrangements.

A Chief Miniter’s Secretariat official told The Express Tribune that the decision to engage the lawmakers was taken following Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s surprise visit to a Ramazan Bazaar in Johar Town on Friday. This was chief minister’s first visit to a Ramazan Bazaar this year. The officials said that shortly after the visit the chief minister assigned various responsibilities in this regard to PML-N lawmakers.

MNA Hamza Shahbaz will monitor Ramazan Bazaars and Ramazan Dasterkhawns in Lahore. Provincial Minister Sirdar Doost Muhammad Khosa will perform the same duties in Dera Ghazi Khan, Law Minister Rana Sanaullah in Khushab, Sargodha, Mianwali and Bhakkar districts, MPA Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channer in Bahawalpur, Bahawlnagar and Rahim Yar Khan districts, Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor in the Gujranwala division, Haji Ahsanud Din Qureshi in Multan division, Malik Ahmed Ali Olakh in Layyah, Muzaffargarh and Rajanpur districts, Malik Nadeem Kamran in Sahiwal, Raja Ashfaq Sarwar in the Faisalabad division, Mian Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman in Rawalpindi and Kamran Michael in Kasur, Sheikhupura and Nankana Sahib.

CDGL: DCO Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta asserted that a 20 kilogramme bag of wheat flour was available for Rs425 in the open market and Rs400 in Ramazan Bazaars in the city. Similarly, he said a 10 kg bag was selling for Rs200 in the Ramazan Bazaars.

A Food Department official said the Punjab government had evolved a strategy to ensure the availability of sugar in all Ramazan bazaars across the province.  He said the department had purchased 50,000 tons sugar from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan for this purpose.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 15^th, 2010.