First-ever ordinance during Murad’s govt coming for price control

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah announced on Thursday that the first-ever ordinance during his continuing tenure as the chief executive of the province will be promulgated to beef up price control mechanism during the holy month of Ramazan.

“Perhaps, I could be mistaken but as far as I remember I have been the chief minister of the province for over six years and during all this time, I haven’t promulgated a single ordinance,” said the CM as he spoke to the media during his visit to the Mazar-e-Quaid along with Governor Kamran Khan Tessori and members of his cabinet to pay homage to the Founder of the Nation on Pakistan Day.

The CM informed the media that just the previous night, he had sent to the governor the draft of the first ordinance of his regime to control prices of essential items after getting it approved by the cabinet members.

The governor who stood next to the CM responded in the affirmative. He said he had signed the ordinance sent by the provincial government. The CM expressed gratitude to the governor for a quick disposal of the ordinance stating that very shortly, it would be promulgated by his government for improving the price control system in the province.

He told the media that every Sindh-based family, which was a beneficiary of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and had a poverty score under the BISP system from zero to 60, would be given Rs2,000 by his government to purchase wheat flour during the holy month.

He said the poverty score up to 60 meant that every household having a total monthly income of less than Rs55,000 could qualify to get this special assistance. Anyone having less than Rs50,000 to Rs 55,000 monthly income and who is not a beneficiary of the BISP could visit its office in every tehsil of the province to get enrolled for this special assistance, Shah said.

He added that his government had contacted the BISP officials who had committed that cases of such deserving applicants would be quickly processed overnight and the very next day, they would be intimated whether or not they qualified for getting that special Ramazan assistance.

The CM said that his government had held talks with the owners of flour mills in Sindh to ensure that wheat flour was available in the markets during Ramazan at Rs130 per kilogramme. He said that special makeshift markets for selling essential products at subsidised and discounted rates would be established in every tehsil and town of Sindh during the holy month.