Zubair Qureshi
Prices of edible items, vegetables, fruit, gram flour and some pulses have gone up by 30pc to 40pc with the arrival of Ramazan . This overnight increase by profiteers in the prices of essential items has multiplied the woes of the poor daily wage workers, low salaried employees and middle and lower middle class of society. Although the Prime Minister’s relief package has contributed to ease their burden to some level but at the larger scale prices are going out of control.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif only a couple of days after taking oath has issued a strict warning regarding increase in food items and directed the departments concerned to conduct raids and bring the culprits to the book, yet it seems raising food prices a day prior to Ramazan has become part of our psyche.
Unfortunately, despite all their good intentions and claims to check food prices, the government relevant departments have miserably failed to curb this rising trend in prices.
Isloos like the rest of the country break their fast with fruit, milk, lemonade, samosa, pakora and other traditional Iftaar items. This turns into quite a festivity and all the family members sit together to break their fast or at least to participate in the ritual.
However, this year whereas coronavirus has affected the normal course of life forcing the people inside their homes it has also put them to enormous financial constraints, particularly those who earn daily wages or have small incomes. Price hike in items of daily use has further added to their miseries.
In Islamabad and Rawalpindi, an unchecked increase in food items prices is getting on the nerves of the people. In Fruit for example, apple (red) is being sold at Rs350 per kg. Before Ramadan it was Rs300.
Similarly, banana which is an essential ingredient of the Iftaar is being sold at Rs 200 while a couple of days earlier its price was Rs150 per one dozen.
Interestingly the Islamabad Territory Authority administration has given a price list for bananas that is Rs110 for one dozen. Other fruits like guava being sold at Rs200 instead of Rs184, and lemon Rs400 instead of Rs150.
A senior official of the ICT requesting anonymity said 15 teams on Sunday conducted raids in various markets to ensure price control and imposed fines on the spot.
Utility Stores have also resumed working and thousands of people did their Ramazan/Iftaar shopping there, further said the official.
On the other hand, the shopkeepers and vendors have blamed hoarders and wholesalers for this increase in the edible items, fruit and vegetables.
Take for instance the example of orange, said a vegetable vendor Farid while talking to Pakistan Observer. They (the wholesale dealers) kept raising orange prices on a daily basis and then one day before Ramadan it went missing from the market and now its prices are up almost twice and poor people are forced to buy it.
