Govt expects prices stability within days

Admitting that rising prices of wheat and sugar have added to the miseries of common people, three federal ministers have claimed that the government has started taking effective and practical measures, which will bring stability to prices of the commodities within days.

"This is my message on behalf of the government to a common citizen. We have realisation. We are cognisant that you (the people) have faced difficulties. The prices of sugar and flour have increased, which should not have been increased, but they did. The government is not ignorant," said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi while speaking at a news conference with Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam and Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar.

"The federal government is cognisant and serious in bringing stability to the prices. We will take all required fiscal, financial or administrative measures to stabilise the prices," he declared. The three ministers held the news conference at a time when thousands of low-ranking government employees from various departments were staging a sit-in at the Parade Ground in front of the Parliament House to demand increase in their salaries in line with rising inflation in the country and a day after the issue of price-hike was thoroughly debated at a meeting of the federal cabinet.

Mr Qureshi, who is also the vice-chairman of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), warned that the government would not allow anyone to earn windfall profits through hoarding of the commodities. He said there was a group that always tried to take undue advantage of the situation created due to gap between the demand and the supply of the commodities "and they did it [this time too]".

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