With the holy month of Ramazan quickly approaching, the government of Pakistan has stepped up its attempts to control the costs of necessities. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently stressed the need of stringent monitoring to offer relief to citizens during this season during a federal cabinet meeting.
To guarantee effective pricing regulation, Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman has ordered the preparation of baseline data in Punjab. The goal of this program is to keep necessities available to the public without encouraging hoarding or profiteering.
On top of that, throughout Ramadan, the government has fixed the price of sugar at 130 rupees per kilogramme. To make it easier for people to get their hands on sugar, sugar mills around the country will set up special booths selling 1- to 2-kilogram packages; each person with a CNIC can buy up to 5 kilogrammes. From three days before Ramadan to the 27th of the month, these booths will be open for business.
There are still problems, even with these fixes. Allegedly, hoarding and profiteering persist unregulated in some areas, causing fictitious shortages and price spikes. The administration is aware of these problems and will do more to fix them so that critical items are available throughout Ramadan and prices stay stable.
