Iftar in Pakistan is incomplete without the extremely essential ‘fruit chat’. That one bowl of goodness can do the trick for an empty stomach. But I guess, this Ramadan we will really have to fight for it. Reason being the sudden hike in the prices of fruits in the holy month. This has caused the people to take their stand against the fruit mafia to the social media as they decide to boycott purchasing it locally. The kids however, will be really happy with this whole situation because now they won’t have to eat their fruit.
Fruit Vendors in Pakistan, have been living with a different concept of Ramadan all their lives. In other countries, the prices of majority of the goods are lowered down considering the sacredness of the month. But here in this country, it somehow sends them the message to raise the prices even more than the authorized level. The prices have seen an increment by at least 15 % and not just on fruits but other commodities as well. The public wants the government to take care of this unconditional price spiking by the fruit vendors. They have asked for the prices to be regulated and revised again.
People are at the loggerheads with the mafia by boycotting fruit. In order to stop this lawful augmentation in the prices of this commodity, a social media campaign has been devised. Just like this year, the prices of fruits, vegetables and groceries soar to the sky without any moderation by the state last year too. However, a very similar social media boycott campaign was coined to get these prices down back to earth. It was a three-day boycott and all it took was three days to have the prices back to their normal figures. This year also, people are hoping for the same results. Above of that, this year they have a little more support from the government as well. Several fruit, hawkers and vendors have been fined and even jailed for this illicit act. Many shopkeepers have been heftily penalized for increasing the prices almost by 30 to 40 percent. It’s not like, there are no rules, no predefined price lists, it’s just that the non-implementation of these rules have caused a chaos every other Ramadan. Luckily, people have found a way to get rid of this problem themselves. Truly democratic, isn’t it?
Source Cover Image: www.myincrediblerecipes.com
