–Whistleblowers would get 10pc of auction
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government here on Tuesday issued an inclusive ordinance against hoarding of 32 items under which a hoarder could be arrested without a warrant and jailed for three years.
Addressing a press conference, the KP Chief Minister’s Advisor for Information Ajmal Wazir said that the ordinance against hoarding has been issued after the signature of the KP Governor.
Under the ordinance, he said accused involved in the hoarding of 32 daily use items including rice, sugar, wheat, tea, milk, ghee, eggs etc. would face three years’ jail term besides 50pc fine of the total auction of the confiscated goods and seizure of the entire hoarded materials.
The whistleblowers would get 10pc reward from the auction of the confiscated goods, he said.
“The deputy commissioners (DCs) have been empowered to conduct raids on credible Information against hoarders without a warrant and confiscate the entire hoarded commodities.”
The ordinance has been promulgated in the province in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak and on eve of Ramazan ul Mubarak.
Wazir said the ordinance would be implemented in letter and spirit in the province.
He said the number of coronavirus cases have surged to 1,276 and 302 patients were recovered whereas the death toll raised to 74 including seven deaths reported in the last 24 hours in KP.
Wazir said coronavirus cases in Peshawar was rising and urged people to stay at homes and keep social distancing besides followed Government SOPs imperative to defeat Coronavirus.
The Adviser said 540 Pakistani returned from Afghanistan via Torkham and were quarantined in Khyber district. He said people returned from the Gulf States were being provided extra care and all facilities along with people repatriated from Afghanistan.
Wazir said KP CM Mahmood Khan had appreciated the performance of districts administration during his video link conference today with Divisional Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of all the districts and stressed on them to work with more dedication for implementing of the Government relief reforms, projects and create awareness among masses against Corona pandemic.
Clarifying a news report attributed to the Sindh chief minister regarding diagnoses of Coronavirus cases, the KP Adviser said it was not a time of politicking rather to work collectively to combat the pandemic.
He said coronavirus was declared a pandemic worldwide and any person tested negative in Peshawar or KP can be infected in Sindh or Karachi or in other areas or in the way and KP govt could not be blamed over it.
He said KP government did not compromise on the quality of testing regarding Coronavirus and diagnostic services were performed by expert doctors in public sector hospitals in our province.
“Initially we have the only capacity of 40 tests per day that had jumped to 1000 per day now and efforts were on to increase it to 5000per day in the near future.”
