LAHORE: Justice Muhammad Farrukh Irfan Khan of Lahore High Court has directed the provincial government to inform court about steps taken so far to control prices of daily-use food items.
Justice Farrukh Irfan ordered the government’s counsel to submit district-wise reports in the court within two weeks. He was hearing a public interest petition seeking directions for the provincial government to establish a price control authority in the province and to restore offices of magistrates for checking black marketing and hoarding of food items.
Earlier, Lahore DCO Capt (R) Muhammad Usman told the court that there had been no significant decline in the cost of production of daily-use items in the country despite the recent reduction in the price of crude oil in the international market. He said transportation expenses were only a fraction of the total expenditure in the production of such items.
The DCO said that the government had ensured that prices were dropped for commodities whose cost of production went down significantly. He also submitted to the court a report on the city district government’s recent steps to control prices of essential commodities. It stated that 1,008 people had been arrested in 2012-2013 and 7,541 in 2014-2015 for various violations of the Price Control Policy.
Responding to the report, the petitioner’s counsel, Muhammad Azhar Siddique, stated that steps to control prices of essential commodities had been restricted only to Lahore. He said no such measures had been taken in other districts of the province.
The petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel had maintained that the federal and provincial governments were not taking appropriate measures to control prices of essential commodities and prevent their black marketing and hoarding.
