158-gram naan being sold at Rs15 in Peshawar

PESHAWAR   -   The Peshawar Nanabi As­sociation continues to be­fool Peshawar city adminis­tration by selling 158 gram naan for Rs15 while the administration had fixed weight for cooked bread at 190 grams.

When The Nation weight­ed a naan being sold at Rs15, the weight was re­corded at 158 gram in Main Saddar Bazaar, where they are bold enough to sell the naan at an inflated price with low weight.

Earlier, before the strike of Nanbai Association, the tandoor owners were ready to sell 190 gram naan at Rs12 but the district ad­ministration jumped direct­ly to Rs15 per naan which had further encouraged the association to lessen the weight proposed by the dis­trict administration.

Talking to The Nation, President of Peshawar Con­sumer Association Malak Ikram said that it was for the first time that price review committee was bypassed by the district administration and even the consumer as­sociation president was not invited to the meeting to fix suitable price for naan as 50 percent increase in the price of a naan with same weight is unjustified.

He said that this never happened while fixing the prices of naan but due to inexperienced officers in district administration the price had been increased to Rs15 instead of Rs12. The Nanbai Association ex­pressed jubilation over the decision of increasing the price by 50 percent.

The flour mills owners have brought 19 percent in­crease in the prices of flour, while the Nanbai Associa­tion have brought 50 per­cent increase badly affecting the poor class of the society.

President of traders’ as­sociation who was also a member of the price review committee told The Nation that the price review com­mittee was set aside by the assistant commission­er and unilaterally agreed with nanbais to fix the price of Rs15 for a naan.

The nanbai association had observed shutter down on July 11 and after sin­gle day strike the adminis­tration was forced to invite them for dialogue. Instead of giving the first option of Rs12 per naan, the admin­istration directly jumped to the price of Rs15 for 190 gram cooked bread but still the association was not ready to ensure the pro­posed weight of 190 gram.