Through out the month of Ramadan and the ensuing shopping for Eid-ul-Fitr, consumers confronted soaring prices of items of daily use as authorities concerned failed to rein-in undue profiteering in markets of Peshawar.
The district administration attempted to bring some order to the prices mechanism of vegetables, fruits, bread and meat. Markets were raided, profiteers arrested and fines leveled on shopkeepers but the process produced no ease for the consumer of products.
Shopkeepers played with consumers at whims with no obvious checks in place. The price control mechanism remained unimplemented as authorities concerned only paid lip service and a historic price increase was recorded.
Prices a few days ago allow one to reveal the story of the Ramadan price hike. The price of beans increased from Rs 90 per kg to 120 per kg, the price of tomatoes from Rs 15 per kg to Rs 40 per kg, onions increased from Rs 10 per kg to Rs 20 per kg.
The prices of chicken increased from Rs 230 per kg to Rs 278 per kg, mutton went up from Rs 240 to Rs 270 per kg and mince meat from Rs 300 to Rs 320 per kg in the market.
The prices of fruits, including banana, apple, grapes, melons, mangoes and lemons, became subject to the whims of the market. One could buy bananas ranging from Rs 40 to Rs 50 per dozen and apples at Rs 200 per kg and above.
The one certainty was that all prices went up: fruits, vegetables and meat. However, price magistrates and food inspectors remained dormant. Fears exist prices will surge again in Eid days.
Pricehike politicized:
Of course, the traditional Ramadan price hike was met with an equally traditional politicisation of the price hike. Political parties including the Pakistan Tehrik-I-Insaaf (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa announced province-wide protest campaigns that soon ran out of steam.
Another incident worth remembering was when the Bakers Association and Peshawar district administration agreed to sell bread at Rs 5 per 115 grams. They promised to dissociate bakers selling at higher prices, however, bakers at Kohat Road and Saddar Bazaar continued to sell at higher rates.
Peshawar old city residents told Pakistan Today that district administration raids would force bakers to sell at the agreed price – however, when raids would lapse, the earlier high prices and weight disparities would reappear.
Earlier, Peshawar Bakers’ Association chairman Haji Iqbal Khan told Pakistan Today that all members of the association had been directed to comply with the directive. He said bakers had also been directed to focus on cleanliness and threatened with expulsion if they charged higher rates.
Meanwhile, the Peshawar district administration imposed fines on butchers for charging higher prices against whom the Beef Association Peshawar chose to strike. The matter was resolved when authorities offered them ‘solace’ to increase the meat prices after Eid with regard to market prices of animals.
Raids by the Peshawar District Administration under Peshawar District Coordination Officer (DCO) Siraj Ahmed Khan’s team, which booked shopkeepers including milk seller, butchers, bakers and confectioners, on charges of profiteering and not displaying government-approved price lists, were largely unsuccessful at curbing profiteering.
Butchers in Peshawar were found, despite warnings, to be selling meat at Rs 70-80 per kg above set prices.
