THE government has come up with a very important and timely ordinance against hoarders whilst it is contemplating another against smuggling to protect the common man in these testing times from shortage of commodities that ultimately result in the increase of prices.
There are black sheep in the business community who always exploit situations to their favour and rob the pockets of the common man by creating artificial shortage of commodities. A couple of months back the people faced the severe shortage of wheat flour which led to increase in the commodity’s price and as the Ramazan is now approaching, it was feared that these elements will become active once again to enhance the prices of essential items. In this context and especially when the people have been hit hard by the Coronavirus, it had become imperative to initiate strict action against these criminals. Through an ordinance, the path has been paved for this and now anybody found involved in hoarding products will have to face three year sentence, summary trial and seizure of the material. Indeed such a strict punishment will help a great deal to discourage this trend provided the ordinance is also implemented in letter and in spirit. The relevant authorities have to stay alert to book such elements without any discrimination and favour. The ordinance against smuggling is also very important in view of the increase in the prices of essential commodities such as that of wheat in the international market. As Pakistan has opened its border with Afghanistan for cargo trucks, strict action against these smugglers has also become important as they commonly use this route to smuggle the items. In order to ensure foreign exchange stability, special efforts need to be made to avoid any sort of smuggling of dollars as in the present situation, this would have disastrous impact for the country’s economy. It is a matter of satisfaction that the government has shown its seriousness to curb these issues and now it is responsibility of relevant organizations such as district administration, the customs and the FBR to fulfil their responsibility. Stern action should also be initiated against the officials showing negligence in their duties.
