ISLAMABAD: In an effort to reduce inflation, President Dr Arif Alvi on Thursday promulgated an ordinance Pakistan Food Security Flow and Information Ordinance against those who deliberately increase prices.
The President has promulgated the Pakistan Food Security Flow and Information Ordinance under which those involved in hoarding, artificial inflation, or adulterating will be liable to imprisonment for six months and along with a fine or both sentences can be given together.
The ordinance will empower the federal government to fix prices and seek information about the supply and demand of the commodities.
According to the ordinance, it has been decided to form a National Food Security and Management Committee headed by the Prime Minister to take immediate decisions to control inflation and implement them immediately.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal, Azad Kashmir Prime Minister and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister will be members of the committee. Other senior officials may also be invited to the committee for decision making or implementation at the directives of the prime minister.
The National Food Safety Management Committee (NFSMC) shall meet at least twice a year or increase the number of meetings to review and fix the prices of essential commodities, it added.
The meeting will be attended by two thirds of the members and decision making will be in the light of majority vote. Due to lack of time, the prime minister will be able to take important decisions and send them to the provinces for implementation.
The NFSMC will formulate the country s first National Food Security Policy and form a National Executive Committee to implement it. The Secretary will be obliged to send information to the Committee on a daily basis.
There shall be an executive committee, to be presided over by the federal secretary, national food security and research. The executive committee shall meet once in a month to ensure implementation of the decisions taken by the management committee.
This committee will determine the commodity prices in the country on daily basis and the support price of agricultural commodities produced in the country. The committee will decide on the procurement of commodities at the government level to build their reserves and supply them to the country as and when required.
