LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday took the authorities concerned to task for making people stand in long queues to buy sugar at cheaper rates at Sasta Ramazan Bazaars in Punjab.
A bench of the LHC expressed displeasure over non-availability of the sweetener at local grocery stores and directed the authorities to immediately ensure that people are not made to wait in lengthy queues at Sasta Bazaars and utility stores.
The court called for a compliance report to be submitted to it tomorrow. “People wait in long queues for five, five hours to get one kilogramme of sugar,” the LHC observed. “Let there be some self-esteem. Don’t turn the people into beggars,” the court said.
“It is up to the Punjab government to ensure availability of sugar at official rates,” the LHC bench noted. The court instructed the government to ensure availability of cheaper sugar at grocery stores. “Insulting people by making them stand in long queues is a grave violation of the Constitution,” the LHC bench remarked. A government counsel said sugar is available at grocery store level and people are not being made to stand in queues at Ramazan Bazaars but provided chairs to sit while waiting their turn to buy the commodity.
