It is said the Roman dictators used to build gigantic colosseums in Rome in which different types of games were arranged for keeping the general public busy in viewing them so as to divert their attention from the question of bread and butter. A cartoon published in a Urdu national paper the other day showed the PCB chief telling somebody on phone to keep the Nation busy in seeing cricket matches as it would prevent protests over price spiral in the country . Let us hope it was figment of imagination of the cartoonist and neither the PCB chairman nor the government has any such intention.
The PM has reportedly asked the CID and other secret services agencies to pinpoint the hoarders and black marketeers of essential commodities so that they could be taken to task through crackdowns. The question is : what have they been doing up till now in this connection?Were they sitting on their haunches? Did they need an order from the PM to take action against them? Was it not a part of their duty to arrest the anti-social element indulging in hoarding of edibles?
It is unbelievable that an SHO of police should not be knowing as to the location of godowns in his bailiwick where the hoarders stock the essential goods with the intention to first create their artificial scarcity in the market and then to sell them at exorbitant rate thus scooping fat gains in the process. If they are not doing their duties properly it is only because they are in league with them or they are shit-scared of arresting them because of their close ties with those who move in the corridors of power.