ISLAMABAD High Court has done what the government should
have done on the very first day of receiving report of the Sugar Commission – reduction in price of commodity. The court, while hearing a petition against the Sugar Commission report, restrained the federal government from taking action on the report and directed the authorities concerned to ensure sugar price at Rs70 per KG for next 10 days.
Though the order is interim in nature and no one knows for sure what the ultimate decision would be but the intent and direction of the court is clear – provision of relief to the consumers who have been forced to pay exorbitantly since long. In fact, the very purpose of the inquiry into the sugar issue was to determine causes of undue increase in prices and provide relief to the people but investigation assumed political dimensions as backdated and other issues were included in its purview for reasons best known to the government. Sugar prices were massively jacked up from Rs. 53 a kilo to over Rs. 85 and these are still hovering around this figure despite hue and cry about the report and a matrix of actions on it. The real issue was fleecing of the consumers and provision of relief to them and that is what the IHC has done in a limited manner as price has been brought down midway and that too for a specific period. This provides a lead to the government to think and act on these lines.
