ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Imran Khan would inaugurate the "Tiger Force" portal on Saturday aimed at giving an opportunity to the youth to play its role in price control of essential items, and improving governance at the union council-level.

Talking to media persons, Dar described hoarding and artificial price hike as the primary reason of the current inflation in the country, saying that the government would soon announce the price control mechanism and the volunteers of the "Tiger Force" would assist the local authorities, and the price control magistrates to effectively enforce the plan.

He said that the government was taking measures to control the price hike, adding that the prime minister had already stated that "we have to take major decisions to provide relief to the people".

Dar said that the "Tiger Force" would only identify the bad practices contributing to the inflation such as profiteering and artificial price hike, while actions would be taken by the concerned price control magistrates.

"The volunteers of the Tiger Force will have no authority to take action, but to assist the local administration and the price control magistrates in identifying such things at the tehsil and union council level," he said, rejecting the criticism of the opposition on the role to be given to the "Tiger Force".

He said that the prime minister would formally inaugurate the "Tiger Force" portal on Saturday during a youth convention to be held at the Convention Center in Islamabad, adding that test run of the portal had already begun, and so far 172,000 volunteers from across Pakistan had been registered with the platform.

In his address to the youth convention, he added that the prime minister would give the next roadmap to them.

Dar insisted that the volunteers of the "Tiger Force" were not from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) or any other political party, adding that any youth could volunteer his/her services for the purpose.

He added that 68 percent of the country's population comprised the youth, and they could play an important role in the nation building.

"I believe that they [the Tiger Force] are national heroes the way they served the nation during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is unfortunate that the opposition is unnecessarily criticising the "Force". They [opposition] are, in fact, the "enemies" of the people, as they don't want the people to get any relief due to the measures being undertaken by the government," he maintained.

"The Tiger Force is an ideology of serving the nation, voluntarily and their services must be acknowledged instead of criticism...On the other hand, those who looted the country's wealth are sitting abroad," Dar said, while responding to the criticism of the Force by the PML-N leaders.

Responding to a question, he maintained that in "Kamyab Jawan Programme", there were statements on the record of many youth associated with the PML-N, who were given loans without any "discrimination.

Giving further details of the portal, he said that the volunteers of the Tiger Force would report from the ground via a mobile application that had already been developed, for further action against the hoarders, those involved in the artificial price hike, and those not displaying the official rate lists.

To another query as to whether the expense of the "youth convention" will be borne by the government, he said that this was government's programme and the government would have to bear the expense of the event.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020