While the law enforcement agencies have disappointed the people of Karachi as regards ensuring security to them, the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) has failed to control the prices of essential commodities in the troubled areas of the metropolitan, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Incidents of violence that erupted in the city also disrupted the smooth functioning of CDGK’s Enterprise and Investment Promotion Group of Offices (E&IP) as the field staff could not enter the major areas of the metropolis due to security concerns.
Moreover, the special bachat bazaars usually established in Ramazan could not be set up following the recent wave of violence.
Before Ramazan, the Sindh government had made major administrative changes by restoring the commissionerate system.
However, the system could not sustain for long as the government revived the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001 within days.
Interestingly, the Sindh Home Department had sanctioned special magistrate powers for all the assistant commissioners and mukhtiarkars in the province to control price-hike, profiteering and hoarding in Ramazan.
In this regard, Home Department’s Additional Chief Secretary Waseem Ahmed issued notification No So(Judl.I)/2-03/2006(A) dated August 1, 2011, conferring special magistrate powers on the appointed assistant commissioners and mukhtiarkars to control the prices of daily-use commodities in the province during Ramazan.
The notification stated that in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 14-A of the Criminal Procedure Code 1898, the provincial government had appointed all the assistant commissioners and mukhtiarkars in the province as special magistrates with powers of a magistrate first class, exclusively for the trial of offences relating to price control under any provincial or federal law for the time being in force within their respective jurisdiction.
Incidents of violence in the city have made the situation rewarding for profiteers, especially fruit vendors, as wholesale dealers and retailers are charging exorbitant rates in the absence of price check and are openly flouting the official price list.
Last year in Ramazan, the government had sent several profiteers to jail or imposed fines on them, but this year no such action has been taken.
Some 144 bachat bazaars were to be established this year in the metropolitan, but due to the deteriorating law and order situation, the plan could not reach fruition.
E&IP Executive District Officer (EDO) Dr Saifur Rehman told this scribe that the regular CDGK bachat bazaars were being established on weekly basis.
However, he admitted that the worst law and order situation had adversely disrupted the smooth functioning of the administration.
The EDO said that the staff assigned to maintain prices of essential commodities could not enter the troubled areas due to fear of their security.
