ASIF FAROOQI, IOL Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, OCTOBER 15 (IslamOnline.net) – Awaiting an official announcement on the start of Ramadan later Friday, October 15, Pakistanis are complaining of record high commodities prices, a market survey and interviews with consumers revealed.

A government moon-sighting committee will meet in Peshawar on Friday evening to review information from its representatives throughout the country to make an announcement on the beginning of the fasting month.

Though prices hike is rather an annual phenomenon attached with the advent of Ramadan, government estimates show 9.25 increase in the prices of commodities in the last three months, the highest ever in decades.

"Items of daily use in kitchen have registered sharp increase over the past two months which has pushed the inflation up," Nadeem Malik, economic writer and analyst, told IslamOnline.net.

Insane

A market survey by IslamOnline.net correspondent a day before the moon-sighting announcement shows the rise in the prices of fruits, vegetables and floor was actually much higher.

"This is insane and inhuman," said Mohammad Aslam, a buyer at a local market in Islamabad.

"The vegetables which were being sold for 14 rupees a kilo are now double the price in the matter of a week."

The same applies for potato which shot up from 14 rupees a kilo to 28 rupees in less than a week.

Floor also registered an increase of over 15 per cent.

"Higher demands generally push the prices of kitchen items upwards every year before Ramadan but this year its unbearable," said Naznin, a housewife shopping from the same market.

"A family with an income of five to six thousands rupees a month was surviving on vegetables because they used to be cheap. But now they cannot even afford vegetables. What should they be eating now," said another woman.

Cheap Bazaars

Pakistani shop workers prepare 'Khajla Phehni' (protein rich vermicellis), a popular dish in Ramadan (AFP)

In a bid to address the prices crisis in Ramadan, the government has established ten special "cheap bazaars" and given subsidy to the state-controlled Utility Stores to sell daily items at controlled rates.

While these bazaars were thronged by the eager buyers, complaints were coming in of poor quality of things available there.

Some hold the public equally responsible for the increase in prices because of the tendency to hoard stock of kitchen items at the first day of Ramada which put pressure on the market and prices go up.

"This is a very logical economics," said Dr Ashfaq Khan, an advisor to the finance ministry.

"Whenever there is pressure on one commodity, its price goes up naturally," he said.

"I would suggest the shoppers should avoid stocking the general things which are always readily available in the market. This is the only way to check inflation in the food items," Khan said.

Last year, Pakistani authorities failed to successfully implement a proposed control mechanism to check price hike in Ramadan.