KARACHI: Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has asked the federal and provincial governments to devise mechanisms to check price hike, stabilise rates of kitchen commodities and tame powerful mafias that are looting people with both hands.
He said it is the constitutional duty of the government to save the public from exploitation of black marketers and hoarders; however, the government is silently supporting them through its continuous inaction.
Expressing serious concern over pre-Eid price hike and asked the government to ensure stability in prices, he said rates of almost every commodity have been hiked by traders and shopkeepers who are looting people with both hands.
He said prices of not only clothes and shoes are skyrocketing but the rate of kitchen items like cooking oil, sugar, milk, vegetables, meat and chicken are also artificially hiked. The government should check the rising price hike urgently to facilitate masses in the last days of the holy month of Ramazan.
Altaf Shakoor said prices of all daily use commodities are rising constantly but the government is not taking any action against hoarders, poor people are suffering a lot due to inaction by the government.
He said recently the parliament members have increased their salaries and perks. However, the government says that it has no budget to increase salaries and pensions of government servants. The rulers should cut their royal expenses and give some breathing space to the poor masses.
He said the government is bent on closing Utility Stores as it doesn’t want poor people to get kitchen commodities on subsidized rates. However, the government gives lavish subsidies to private companies that make electricity, urea and other products. The rulers only talk about the problems of people at the time of elections and then forget them for the whole next term.
Altaf Shakoor asked that all basic kitchen cheaper rates should be provided to poor and low income people on ration cards at cheaper rates. The old ration card system should be reintroduced. Utility Stores should not be closed but made further functional to facilitate the poor masses.
He said the government should adopt a welfare-based approach and take action against price hike and hoarding mafias including the powerful sugar miller mafia. The sugar mafia should have been jailed but the government instead allowed them to increase the rate of sugar.
He said that it is high time that the poor people get some relief now so that they could also celebrate the Eid.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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