Inflated milk price
For governments in Pakistan, things doable have become undoable. During Muharram this year, milk became dearer than petrol and diesel. In Karachi and other places of Sindh, the price of milk had gone up as high as Rs140 a litre. At the same time, petrol was selling at Rs113 a litre and diesel at Rs91 a litre. On the occasion of Muharram, the demand for milk increases. Taking advantage of this, unscrupulous milk sellers increase the price of milk. It becomes a case of strike the iron before it is cold. Whether it is Muharram or Ramazan traders have no qualms about increasing prices. Usually, the authorities turn a blind eye to profiteering. We do not know whether politicians protect the interests of milk sellers in the legislatures.
At present in Karachi, the official price of milk has been fixed at Rs94 a litre but shopkeepers are selling it at Rs110. Retailers say since they purchase milk at a high price from wholesalers and dairy farmers, they sell it at a high price. Dairy farmers and wholesalers maintain that prices of their inputs have increased, so they sell milk at a high price. They say the government has not allowed them any increase in milk price since long. Dr Khatu Mal Jeevan, a Special Assistant to the Sindh CM, has called a meeting on Sept 13 at the Karachi commissioner’s office to review the matter. Along with the commissioner, all deputy commissioners, additional inspectors general of police, DIGs, SSPs, representatives of dairy farmers and other stakeholders would be present at the meeting
We hope the meeting will arrive at a decision that will make milk available to the common people at an affordable price. Recent experience, however, shows that meetings are indispensable when you do not want to do anything. Pakistan is the sixth-largest producer of milk in the world, so there is no reason why milk and its products should not be available at affordable prices to all strata of society.
International rebuke for India
The world community “must not remain indifferent to the tragedy that is unfolding before our eyes” in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Tuesday during the 42nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. In what may be a callout of India’s economic allies turning a blind eye to the brutality of the Indian regime in the occupied state, the FM added, “We must not let political, commercial, and parochial considerations cloud and impair our thoughts and action.”
Decisive action, Qureshi insisted, was needed to address the warning signs of a “looming human catastrophe”. He also called on the human rights council to take a few immediate steps, including urging India to immediately stop the use of pellet guns; end the bloodshed; lift the curfew; reverse the clampdown and communications blackout; restore fundamental freedoms and liberties; release political prisoners; stop targeting human rights defenders; and fulfil its obligations under the UNSC resolutions and international law. He also called on the council to take steps to bring to justice the perpetrators of human rights violations of Kashmiris through an inquiry commission, as recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. On Wednesday, Pakistan submitted a statement on behalf of 50 countries, expressing concern over the illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir by India. The statement included all of the points from his earlier speech. The Foreign Office also issued a statement thanking the 50 countries which signed the statement. Also, after a meeting with Qureshi, UN Human Rights Council President Coly Seck reportedly expressed concern over the abuse of human rights and said the entire world was cautiously watching the situation.
The Indian media has, meanwhile, caught on to a misspeak by Qureshi during an interaction with reporters on Tuesday, where he accidentally referred to the disputed region as “the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir”, rather than ‘IOK’ or ‘Indian Occupied Kashmir’, which are the terms Pakistan officially uses. Fortunately, if this is the best that India and the Modi media can come up with after an international rebuke, it’s still a win for Pakistan.
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