According to a report, taking due notice of the complaints of sudden surge in the prices of essential commodities with the advent of Ramazan, President Pervez Musharraf has asked the federal and provincial governments both to exercise a check on the alarming trend.
Understandable, of course, is his dismay over price escalation, particularly when the prices, at least, of Sehri and Iftar related items, tend to go up. This time, both the federal and provincial governments had started taking measures, to ensure against the prices skyrocketing during the holy month.
When the prices of kitchen items, in general, and bare essential commodities, like sugar and atta, in particular, were seen rising much earlier. This has reference, to major efforts mounted by the government to ensure relief from high prices through various strategies. More marked was the emphasis on sugar, usually a controversial commodity in all seasons, but often acquiring alarming dimensions in Ramazan.
The brave exercise, launched for relief, this time, particularly, in view of its shortage, has proved of little avail. For belying all official claims, to the contrary, it remains beyond the reach of the common man. It is, however, another matter that a few utility stores can be selling it, among other items, to lucky buyers from whatever stock is available.
Notwithstanding the price relief measures for the fasting month of Ramazan, earlier stated to have been made at all the levels of the government, disquieting, indeed, is the situation as now emerging on the price front. Right until the eve of Ramazan, men who matter in the government had been assuring relief from high prices and adulteration.
Even Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is reported to have expressed satisfaction over the check on rising prices. Of course, this may be largely attributed to briefings from the concerned authorities, besides visits to some utility stores here and there. Be that is it may, the experience of consumers in the market and news reports reflecting traders' defiance of official efforts presents gloomy picture of the situation.
This should leave little to doubt from the President's directive to the federal and provincial government, as well as from his appeal to the trading community. In the absence of a scientifically planned market mechanism, all efforts at ensuring price stability are bound to prove an exercise in futility. For, it will be noted that interplay of the forces of supply and demand makes a crucial feature of the market-based economic system, which we are trying to introduce in the country, to replace the old order, which continues to be very much in vogue, except for minor changes, here and there.
It may be recalled that even countries following the private enterprise system have to resort to price control and rationing of essential commodities, under extraordinary circumstances, as happened all over the British Empire, including undivided India during the World War II. In so far as Pakistan is concerned, it seems to have opted to play safe with an ambiguous "mixed" pattern in both economic planning and management. Obviously, the only hope of relief from the unruly price behaviour, every now and then, lies in correcting the overall economic management approach with prime focus on agriculture and the common consumer.
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