False shortage

I cannot help but thank the Islamabad High Court for their intervention while listening to an appeal by sugar manufacturers, fixing the interim retail price of sugar at Rs70 per kg, although it was being sold for Rs85-90 per kg. Similarly, the Peshawar High Court has ordered petroleum distribution companies to restore normal supply within three days. There exist several hundred bureaucrats, numerous departments, regulatory bodies, and an elected executive, all paid for by taxpayers, to provide citizens basic rights, justice, security of life and property and provision of basic goods at affordable prices. What purpose do all these state paraphernalia serve, if their failure to perform designated tasks, by design or incompetence, forces courts to intervene in the public interest. There will then follow a campaign against judicial activism.

The federal government and NAB have been pursuing so-called sugar mafia scams for several months, during which the retail price of sugar has risen by almost Rs30 to Rs40 per kg. A commission was formed, and an FIA team appointed to investigate. It held several high-level meetings and all this while sugar prices kept on escalating, although initial investigations had established the cost of manufacturing was approximately Rs52 per kg. As if this was not enough, the prime minister ordered relief, by lowering petroleum retail prices for the second consecutive month. As per SOPs, petroleum distribution companies maintain ten-day supply reserves. Yet fuel was not available at pumps. As usual the petroleum ministry was in hibernation and finally woke up under pressure to impose a fine of a few crores. Nevertheless, profits from hoarding will be ten to twenty times the penalty if fuel prices increase in July.

Malik Tariq Ali

Lahore