PM Imran asks provinces to devise joint plan on food prices.

Byline: Mubarak Zeb Khan

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday approved the establishment of a National Demand Supply Cell (NDSC) aimed at monitoring the availability of essential commodities and instructed the provinces to formulate within a week a National Action Plan for keeping their prices in check.

The prime minister was presiding over a meeting on adulteration, hoarding and inflation, which was attended by federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, federal Minister for Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar, PM's Adviser on ComAmerce Razak Dawood and Special Assistant to the PM on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and chief secretaries of the four provinces took part in the proceedings through video links.

During the meeting Mr Khan was also briefed on some mobile phone Apps for checking prices of the commodities and their online delivery in big cities of the country.

Sindh chief secretary told to check price of wheat flour

Issuing instructions for the prompt establishment of the NDSC, which would monitor supply and demand of essential items like sugar, wheat and rice, Mr Khan said the manpower required for the purpose should be provided by the food security ministry.

He asked the four chief secretaries to devise within a week a comprehensive plan aimed to keep prices of wheat flour, sugar and rice, etc, in check and also abolish adulteration.

When, during a briefing on the prices of essential items in the four provinces, the prime minister noted that prices of food items were on the higher side in Sindh, the prime minister asked its chief secretary to take effective measures to arrest the adverse trend.

Sindh's Chief Secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah had informed the meeting about the rising prices of commodities, especially wheat flour in Karachi.

The meeting was informed that the...