Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Sunday devises a comprehensive strategy to control prices of essential items in the province during the holy month of Ramadan.
Chairing a meeting of the province’s commissioners and deputy commissioners via a video link, the chief minister ordered them to run a campaign against inflation in the areas under their control. She directed them to ensure that shopkeepers displayed the government rate list.
CM Maryam also ordered the monitoring of the demand and supply of goods so that hoarding could be prevented. She directed the chief secretary to monitor the drive against hoarding.
Not only that, the chief minister also issued instructions that it must be ensured that the prices of food items, especially of flour and bread, did not shoot up and that there should be no compromise on their quality.
She ordered the Punjab Food Authority to launch a crackdown to make sure that quality food items were sold.
CM Maryam said that Ramadan was the month when Allah’s blessings are at their peak. Therefore, she went on to say, the traders should take care of the poor people and should not increase the prices of food items. “Throughout the world, rates drop during the holy month. But here the case is the opposite. We should, too, cut down the prices,” she asserted.