KARACHI: Sugar hag almost completely disappeared from the City markets. It was not available in retail yesterday [Oct 19]. However, a couple of wholesalers at Jodia Bazar were selling sugar and retailers stood in queues for hours to get one bag of sugar at the rate of Rs 65 per maund.

The Provincial Government had on Oct 17 issued Sugar Price Control Order under the West Pakistan Foodstuff (Control) Act 1958, fixing the wholesale price at Rs 65 per maund and the retail price at Rs 70 per maund or Rs 1.75 per seer. The Central Government, by another Order, directed all the sugar dealers to declare their stocks within 24 hours. No wholesaler is allowed to keep more than 100 bags and no retailer more than 10 bags at a time.

Desi ‘shakar’ and ‘gur’ were available yesterday at double their prices — ‘shakar’ at Rs 2 per seer as against last week’s price of one rupee per seer: and ‘gur’ at Rs 1.75 per seer as against last week’s price of 88 paisa per seer.

Meanwhile, the officials of the local Food Directorate apprehended about nine persons for violating the Government Orders by selling sugar at more than the fixed rates. The cases have been handed over to the police.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2018