Raids conducted on tip-off by Tiger Force at motorway rest areas

ISLAMABAD: The civil administration had conducted raids on a tip-off by Tiger Force volunteers at motorway rest areas against hoarders and profiteers, ARY News reported on Sunday.

The local administration expedited actions against hoarders and profiteers to bring down prices of essential commodities over the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

During the raids, the administration made arrests of several more responsible persons besides imposition of fines up to 40,000 for overcharging the products.

Read: Tiger Force comes into action against artificial inflation, hoarding

The volunteers of Tiger Force reported regarding the overcharging of essential goods from passengers at motorway rest areas.

Moreover, a raid was also carried out against hoarders on a tip-off by Tiger Force in Gujar Khan city of Punjab. The raid was conducted on a secret go-down where sugar sacks were hidden.

More than 800 sugar sacks were seized that worth over Rs4 million. The seized sugar sacks will be provided to sahulat bazaars to sale it on lower cost.

Read: Tiger Force given first task for discouraging hoarding

Earlier on Saturday, a monthly report on ongoing crackdowns against hoarders and profiteers in Punjab with the assistance of Tiger Force volunteers had been presented in a session jointly chaired by the provincial chief secretary and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar.

It is noteworthy to mention here that the provincial authorities conducted crackdowns across Punjab over the reports of Tiger Force volunteers and seized hoardings of essential commodities including wheat, sugar, flour and ghee worth millions.

It stated that that the authorities seized different commodities from hoarders worth over Rs144 million besides imposing heavy fines on responsible persons worth more than Rs51.4 million and registered 1,288 First Information Reports (FIRs) for overcharging besides arresting 1,200 people during one month.

Read: Raids conducted in KP after Punjab to curb inflation, hoarding

It read that 25,000 sacks of sugar weighing approximately 1,300 tons were seized which worth more than Rs100 million.

The statistics of actions carried out between April 2020 to October 2020 were also presented in the session.

It read that Rs7.1 billion worth hoardings were seized during the period of April 2020 and October 2020, whereas, fines of over Rs596.6 million were imposed against hoarders during the last six months.

The authorities arrested 9,543 responsible persons and registered more than 9,000 FIRs.

PM Imran Khan had given the first task to the Tiger Force volunteers for discouraging hoarding while chairing a high-level session regarding the ongoing efforts for price controls.