The Sindh government has decided to establish separate police stations across all departments in the province, including Karachi, as part of a comprehensive plan for taking effective action against price trends.

A high -level meeting on the price control of significant raw materials was held, led by special assistant to Chief Minister of IT, Waqar Mehdi and special assistant to Bureau of Supplies, Usman Hangoro.

The meeting attended agricultural secretary Sohail Ahmed Qureshi, Director -General Bureau of Supplies and Price Shakir Qayyum Khanzada, legal manager of national food and other officials.

During the meeting, the agricultural secretary and the DG Bureau of Supplies informed the officials of measures to control the prices of significant goods. Waqar Mehdi declared that the Sindh government has decided to establish these police stations to take strict action against profiters. The decision aims to stabilize the prices of significant goods and curb and overpriced.

Waqar Mehdi also said that all stocks would be registered before Ramadan. He instructed officials to secure special stalls for significant raw materials in discount markets and to regulate the prices of fruits. In addition, all cold stocks on Sindh’s vegetable markets will be registered and monitored to prevent them from selling goods at higher prices.

Usman Hangoro declared that these police stations jurisdiction will cover the entire Sindh province and they will be empowered to intervene against profiters. The newly established stations will include staff from the Bureau of Supplies and the Police Department.

He also instructed that special surveillance tasks were assigned across Sindh’s markets to immediately tackle consumer complaints and secure justice to the public.

The meeting also decided to create special booths for spices at reduced prices of Karachi’s discount markets. All suppliers and pushcart sellers were asked to show the official price lists for fruits and vegetables.

During the briefing, the DG Bureau of Supplies reported that in the last three weeks 272 units were inspected in Karachi and fines were introduced at PKR 536,000.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s inflation rate dropped to an almost decade-low level of 2.4% in January, which put the central bank under pressure to further reduce interest rates to single digits by giving up its foreign money policy.

Although the pace of the price increase was at one of the lowest levels since November 2015, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in the cabinet on Monday expressed “concerns about the rising prices of sugar, vegetables and edible oil.”

Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Monday that inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 2.4% in January compared to the same month last year.

The slow pace matches the federal government and independent analysts. It was the lowest increase in prices since November 2015, when reading was 2.7%. With the fresh inflation, the gap between headline inflation and the most important political rate for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has expanded to 9.6%.

Last week, the central bank reduced interest rates to 12% a total cut of 10% since the start of this financial year. However, the cost of borrowing remains far higher than the current inflation, which indicates that the central bank’s cautious monetary policy.