ISLAMABAD - The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Tuesday rejecting the criticism of opposition defended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s move to use the Corona Relief Tiger Force (CRTF) of volunteers to check rising prices of food items in the country.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Youth Affairs Usman Dar while talking to media said that the criticism of opposition on the Tiger Force was unnecessary and called the volunteers "national heroes".  

He described the tiger force a “national asset” and said that “There is no need to make them controversial.” He said that the opposition was using such words to criticize the force that had never even been used for the Indian intelligence agency — RAW.

"Some are saying that the Tiger Force has usurped the country's wheat and sugar while some are calling it a 'Hitler force'," the SAPM said.

He regretted that the opposition was targeting the volunteers, who exhibited great responsibility and performed various tasks without any greed and monetary gains during the trying times of outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. 

A couple of days ago, PM Imran Khan had tasked volunteer force with checking the prices of food items. However, the opposition parties criticized the move saying that one million force that was primarily established for carrying out volunteer work during the outbreak of Covid-19 in the country on the direction of PM had no legal authority to check food prices. 

The SAPM informed media that PM Imran Khan will address to the ‘brave soldiers’ of Tiger Force on the upcoming Saturday and inform them about their roles and responsibilities in controlling “artificial” inflation in the country. 

He said the government had developed a portal to facilitate the volunteers, enabling them to report the hoarding, price hike and non-display of the official rate lists in markets.