Ministry of I&P directed to make concrete efforts for price cut
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—The Supreme Court on Thursday while appreciating the efforts of four provincial police departments in launching a drive against hoarding and profiteering directed the Ministry of Industries and Production to emulate them with practical steps instead of confining itself to policy making.
The three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan heard the suo motu case. The bench directed Ministry of Industries and Production to initiate a tangible strategy to stem the tide of price hike in collaboration with Central Board of Revenue and bankers.
Deputy Attorney General Nahida Mehboob Elahi, Commissioner Islamabad Hamid Ali Khan, Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production Shahab Khawja, Acting IG Islamabad Shahid Nadeem Baloch, Home Secretary Punjab Khusru Pervez, Provincial Police Officers from Pujab Ahmed Nasim, Balochistan Tariq Khosa, NWFP Pervez Malik and Balochistan appeared before the court.
They apprised the Apex Court about the steps being taken in their areas to control the price hike and actions against hoarders and profiteers.
Deputy Attorney General and Additional Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production said that a comprehensive report has been prepared to control price hike and discourage trend of hoarding. They said teams have been constituted at all district levels who were conducting raids on regular basis.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that what would be the outcome of such reports. He said you should proceed against those godowns and areas where industrialists and bankers in collaboration with each other have hide the basic commodities of life to create price hike.
“You should not depend upon provincial secretaries and take concrete measures, look at IGP Punjab Ziaullah for controlling kite flying trend in the province which was a difficult task,” he added. He said the official concerned should also seek help of police force in tracing the places of hoarding. Home Secretary Punjab Khusru Pervez apprised the court that there was unhindered supply of flour from Punjab to NWFP and Sindh and it was not intending to cut provincial quota.
Chief Justice raised the question that in Rawalpindi per kg flour was charged at Rs 20.
The provincial secretary replied that there were three kind of flour including fine ata, Chaki ata and normal ata, the former two were costly.
Chief Justice said that prices over these vital edible items may be reduced immediately by 25 per cent. “The godowns are usually located outside Lahore city, probably on Raiwind road and no one knows what is going there,” he added. He said on the other hand, one can see a stream of trucks loaded with flour bags at Quetta heading towards Afghanistan.
Home Secretary apprised that legislation about new law on agriculture products was in the offing.
He apprised that through the province they had constituted 367 teams who were conducting at least 2,000 raids daily.
The Chief Justice asked him when they were going to open all the godowns and cold storage having huge quantity of potatoes and onions. IG Islamabad Shahid Nadeem Baloch said that during recent raids 3,200 crates of grape have been seized which were subsequently brought into market with the result that its price had been reduced from Rs 94 to Rs 68. Besides, he said, fifteen flour mills have been checked in the Capital.