Islamabad, October 13, 2020: “On one hand the PM is saying that the government has decided to use all resources against inflation in the country and on the other, he is using the so-called services of political volunteers of a “Tiger Force” for the identification and management of hoarders. Are local government administrators not competent enough to handle this? How are executive functions of the govt being passed on to an army of political volunteers, with no training, credentials or legitimacy in the law to police the functions of the market ?” asked the Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman
She said, “Asking a politically tagged force to monitor and check the prices of food and other items in the existence of a full government including DCs is a recipe for rampant abuse of casually bestowed powers. This is the job of ministers and district administrators; if the cabinet cannot see this they should resign and sit home, considering now they have passed executive authorities illegally to volunteer vigilante gangs called the Tiger Force”.
“Instead of doing their jobs, ministers are busy targeting the opposition. In the past two years, PM has taken notice of the increasing inflation eleven times and yet we are still at the same place. Or is this also the responsibility of previous governments?” Rehman asked.
She said, “Pakistan is going through the worst inflation, economic and unemployment crisis ever and we are yet to see any action on it. PM does not need to go too far to search for hoarder mafias as they are present in his own government. He can identify them without the help of Tiger Force too.”
“It is shocking that basic everyday necessities are beyond one’s reach now. Government employees are protesting over their salaries, our healthcare system has collapsed, sectarian violence is on the rise, Motorway rapist is still not caught, women and children are not safe. Is this the Naya Pakistan that was promised?” The Senator questioned.
She said, “Using the Tiger Force to do the government’s job is a clear reflection of the complete failure of governance. Under what authority is the Tiger Force being directed to regulate the prices? What is their legal status? Is the ECC and National Pricing Monitoring Committee not capable enough to do their work?”
Parliamentary Leader of the PPP in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman concluded by saying, “It is clear that this government has no action plan and it is high time that they stop hiding behind their incompetence. Blaming the opposition cannot be a substitute for mismanagement nor can it disguise their collosal failures or political inability to unite the country in crisis. The federal government needs to face up to the hard reality that its job is governance, not container politics, so it should stop relying on politically partisan volunteers to monitor inflation”.
