Govt issues ordinance against hoarding: Ajmal

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government here Tuesday issued an inclusive ordinance against hoarding of 32 items under which a hoarder could be arrested without a warrant and could be jailed for three years.

Addressing a press conference here, Ajmal Wazir, Adviser to the Chief Minister KP for Information said the ordinance against hoarding has been issued after the signature of the KP Governor.

Under the ordinance, he said accused involved in hoarding of 32 daily use items including rice, sugar, atta, tea, milk, ghee, eggs etc would face three years jail term besides 50% fine of the total auction of the confiscated goods and seizure of the entire hoarded materials.

The whistle blowers would get 10pc reward from the auction of the confiscated goods, he said.

“The Deputy Commissioners have been empowered to conduct raids on credible Information against hoarders without warrant and confiscate the entire hoarded commodities.”

The ordinance has been promulgated in  the province in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak and on eve of Ramazan ul Mubarak.

Wazir said the ordinance would be implemented in letter and spirit in the province.

He said number of coronavirus cases have been surged to 1276 and 302 patients were recovered whereas death toll raised to 74 including seven deaths repirted in last 24 hours in KP. Wazir said coronavirous cases in Peshawar was rising and urged people to stay at homes and keep social distancing besides followed Government SOPs imperative to defeat Coronavirus.

The Adviser said 540 Pakistani returned from Afghanistan via Torkham and were qurantined in Khyber district. He said people returned from Gulf States were being provided extra care and all facilities along with people repatriated from Afghanistan.

Wazir said CM KP Mahmood Khan had appreciated performance of districts administration during his vide link conference today with Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of all the districts and stressed on them to work with more dedication for implementing of the Government relief reforms, projects and create awareness among masses against Corona pandemic. Clarifying a news report attributed to the Chief Minister Sindh regarding diagnoses of Coronavirus cases, the KP Adviser said it was not a time of politicking rather to work collectively to combat the pandemic.

He said coronavirus was declared a pandemic worldwide and any person tested negative in Peshawar or KP can be infected in Sindh or Karachi or in other areas or in way and KP Govt could not be blamed over it.

He said KP Government did not compromise on quality of testing regarding Coronavirus and dignostic services were performed by experts doctors in public sector hospitals in our province.

“Initially we have only capacity of 40 tests per day that had jumped to 1000 per day now and efforts were on to increase it to 5000per day in near future.”