Friendly match to bring prices down

My respected Lahori brother Nawaz Sharif visited two commercial markets, Aabpara and G-10, of Islamabad on February 8 reportedly with a view to knowing for himself the vegetable and fruit price trend. Was that a surprise visit? No, pleasant and meaningful for both a handsome politician and ordinary citizens.
Prices of kitchen items, including wheat flour, sugar and milk were within the reach of the common man as long as the country’s first Prime Minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, was alive. He was shot dead at the moment he rose to address the Rawalpindi people at Company Bagh on October 16, 1951. He had wanted to speak his mind in the interest of the people and their motherland.
Hoarders and black marketers soon had free hands to loot consumers while most politicians spent their time and energy to gain ascendency. The result was that General Ayub changed the whole scenario and food prices soon came down: black marketers were flogged in public.
One gets back to Quaid-i-Azam’s 1947 address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan wherein he touched upon socio-economic problems like shortage of food and essential commodities, black-marketing and hoarding; and suggested severe punishment to exploiters.
The third-time prime minister must have recalled that address and made up his mind to visit the federal capital’s commercial markets with good intention. Consumers now eagerly wait for the next visit of the head of the government for a pleasant announcement in their favour.
The fact is bitter: hundreds of thousands have limited monthly income while prices keep on going up without any check. The suffering people say leaders should stop running after power, instead they should start playing a quarterly friendly cricket or football match, letting common people enjoy the exercise free of cost. Who wins, who loses will not create any ill-will; eventually friendly spirit will prevail and that spirit will bind the players to surrender friendly to the will of all the people, and prices will come down -- otherwise nobody will escape Almighty God’s severe punishment.
zasarwar@hotmail.com