The Supreme Court has expressed dissatisfaction over government''s measures to check price hike during Ramazan. A four-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, was hearing a suo motu notice concerning the recent price hike and scarcity of essential items of daily use like flour.
The court had sent notices to Commissioner, Islamabad, DCO, Rawalpindi, Federal Secretaries for Agriculture, Finance, Commerce and Industries and Chairman Capital Development Authority to brief it about the steps taken to bring down the inflated prices of essential commodities. The government presented a report, sent by the four provincial Chief Secretaries to bring down the prices, which did not satisfy the court.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed that ordinances had been promulgated to give relief to each other, but no ordinance was promulgated to provide relief to the common man even during the holy month of the Ramazan.
The court directed the four Inspectors-General of Police to form special teams of competent and honest officers to check hoarding and profiteering of essential commodities like sugar, flour, rice and cooking oil in their provinces, and register criminal cases against the hoarders and the profiteers.
The court instructed Secretary Industries to ensure availability of sufficient eatables and stability of the prices in the country. The court also instructed CDA Chairman to ensure that agriculture farms allotted for producing dairy products, vegetable, meat and mutton were not converted into farm houses.
The court authorised CDA to cancel allotment of all those agriculture farms in federal capital territory which are not producing the required products.
Addressing the court, one of the applicants, Senator Anwer Beg, of PPP alleged that influential persons of the sitting government were involved in the sugar, flour and rice scams and the government had done nothing to control the prices.
The court directed the federal and provincial governments to submit a comprehensive report on October 11, 2007. Other members of the bench were Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Shakirullah Jan.
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