ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed federal and provincial authorities to ensure provision of food items to people at affordable rates during the holy month of Ramadan, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday.
The prime minister gave the directives while presiding over a meeting in Lahore to review supply and prices of sugar in the South Asian country.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam, wherein Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise till sunset for a month.
While the government tries to keep the prices in check, hoarders often create artificial shortage of essential items to make illegal profits during Ramadan.
“Shehbaz Sharif said provision of sugar and other food items at affordable rates to people is top priority of the government,” the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“He emphasized strict action against smuggling and hoarding.”
The prime minister said the government’s crackdown on sugar smuggling helped combat it successfully in the last few months, directing authorities devise a strategy for provision of food items at affordable rates, according to the report.
The provincial chief secretaries assured the meeting that stern action will be taken against hoarders and the district administrations will work vigilantly to this effect.
The month of Ramadan, the exact start date of which depends on the sighting of the new moon, began in Pakistan on Sunday, with many Pakistanis saying they were feeling the pinch despite a decline in consumer inflation to 2.4 percent in Jan. as compared to 24 percent in the same period last year.
On Saturday, Sharif launched a Rs20 billion ($71.4 million) Ramadan relief package to benefit 4 million families across the South Asian country. The Pakistani government is providing each family Rs5,000 ($17.87) to support them during the holy fasting month.
“This [package] would cover the whole of Pakistan, all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” Sharif said at the launching ceremony.
“This amount will be distributed among deserving people in all these areas through a digital [wallet] system.”
Pakistan PM asks authorities to ensure provision of food items at affordable rates in Ramadan
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Pakistan PM asks authorities to ensure provision of food items at affordable rates in Ramadan
- The development comes amid a decline in consumer inflation in Pakistan, but many Pakistanis say they are still feeling the pinch
- A day earlier, the Pakistani government launched a Rs20 billion relief package to support 4 million needy families across the country
Rating firm S&P says it won’t rush Iran war downgrades, sees risks for countries like Pakistan
- Agency says it is monitoring indebted energy importers as higher oil prices strain finances
- Gulf economies seen better placed to weather shock, though Bahrain flagged as vulnerable
LONDON: S&P Global said it would not make any knee-jerk sovereign rating cuts following the outbreak of war in the Middle East, but warned on Thursday that soaring oil and gas prices were putting a number of already cash-strapped countries at risk.
The firm’s top analysts said in a webinar that the conflict, which has involved US and Israeli strikes against Iran and Iranian strikes against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, was now moving from a low- to moderate-risk scenario.
Most Gulf countries had enough fiscal buffers, however, to weather the crisis for a while, with more lowly rated Bahrain the only clear exception.
Qatar’s banking sector could also struggle if there were significant deposit outflows in reaction to the conflict, although there was no evidence of such strains at the moment, they said.
“We don’t want to jump the gun and just say things are bad,” S&P’s head global sovereign analyst, Roberto Sifon-Arevalo, said.
The longer the crisis was prolonged, though, “the more difficult it is going to be,” he added.
Sifon-Arevalo said Asia was the second-most exposed region, due to many of its countries being significant Gulf oil and gas importers.
India, Thailand and Indonesia have relatively lower reserves of oil, while the region also had already heavily indebted countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka whose finances would be further hurt by rising energy prices.
“We are closely monitoring these (countries) to see how the credit stories evolve,” Sifon-Arevalo said.
