As rising vegetable prices spell misery for people under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) for Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has claimed that peas are being sold in the market for only Rs5 per kilogram (kg).
“Another grower, [Federal Minister for Aviation] Ghulam Sarwar Khan Sahab has told [me] that 20kg pea bags are being sold at the rate of Rs5/kg,” she said while addressing a press conference.
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Statement from PM Imran Khan’s aide, who seems to be totally unaware of the persisting sky-high vegetable prices in the country, made headlines a day after the premier’s finance adviser, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, told reporters that tomatoes were being sold for as low as Rs17 per kg across Karachi.
“In Karachi, in the sabzi mandi (produce market), tomatoes are being sold for Rs17 per kg”.
When some of the reporters present at the scene told him that tomatoes were, in fact, being sold at Rs240 per kg, he refuted saying “people were lying”.
“That’s what is being run on the television,” Imran’s adviser noted, to which one of the reporters said, “But on the TV, it says tomatoes are being sold for Rs240 a kg.”
Another journalist responded with a fresh personal story, “Sir, I myself bought tomatoes for Rs300 a kg.”
“Oh but I am agreeing that prices of many commodities need to be controlled. Agriculture [industry] has seasonality,” the PM’s adviser explained, as someone from behind persistently tried to stop the person holding the phone from recording the video.
‘ [sic].”
