Increase in prices during Ramadan
I thank and appreciate Dr. Qaiser Hamed Metawea for his very important article on the serious issue of price hikes in Ramadan (July 27). In his article, Dr. Metawea has rightly pointed out a serious problem that can be defined as a huge blunder and corruption in the Saudi market during this holy month. It is being observed by everyone that there has been a dramatic increase in the prices of essential goods, such as fruits and vegetables. He is absolutely right that Ramadan is the month of worshipping God and doing all types of good deeds, but unfortunately some greedy traders have neither fear of God nor the fear of law and respect for the orders and directions issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Increasing prices of goods during Ramadan by traders is a serious problem. Merchants are taking undue and unjust advantage of the high consumer demand of essential goods in the market by increasing the prices two or three times over as mentioned by the writer. Ironically, consumers have no other option but to purchase these essential goods for their survival and to fulfill their needs.
He has rightly said that “What is also of concern is that Muslims from all over the world come to Saudi Arabia during Ramadan to visit the two holy cities, Makkah and Madinah, and it creates a very bad image and impression of Saudi Arabia that in the land of the two holy cities there are greedy traders who try to take advantage of consumers during the holy month of Ramadan.”
I agree with his valuable suggestion that to overcome the problem of high prices of essential goods the ministry should appoint more officers to investigate instances of price hikes. Also, the ministry should take aggressive action against merchants who increase prices during Ramadan and it should make sure that they are severely punished to set an example for other greedy traders. Without taking harsh steps against these traders, the problem will remain unsolved and merchants will continue to loot public, and people will suffer a lot as they have no other option but to wait for the Day of Judgment when everybody will be rewarded or punished according to their deeds and nobody will be spared on that day. — Zakaria Sultan, Riyadh
Pak constitutional court
An important clause of the Charter of Democracy, which was signed way back in 2006 between Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), asks for the establishment of a constitutional court solely responsible for constitutional matters/ interpretation of laws. The present Supreme Court (SC) was to be maintained as an appeals court for non-constitutional issues. Such an arrangement is quite prevalent in many countries. Though both the PPP and PML-N are in power for the last four years, both have not yet taken any serious initiative for the establishment of a constitutional court.
But we think that the time has come for such an action. Even if we ignore the general impression among masses that the SC has been badly politicized and is working very vigorously to haunt a few in the ruling party, the superior court's attempts to take over governance matters have created a conflict between the judiciary and the executive. We all know that tens of thousands of petitions are eating dust waiting to become part of the Cause List (weekly selection of cases for hearing) but the SC is prioritizing the cases on its own without any logical merit. Earlier we used to joke about how after every unfortunate incident in the country, it takes a long time (generally 24-48 hours) for the president/prime minister or interior minister to issue a statement that they have taken notice and have demanded an inquiry report. After the recent surge in judicial activism and an increased number of suo moto notices, the chief justice has also joined this privileged 'notice takers' group and sometimes he is the first one whose ticker appears on TV channels asking for an inquiry report. One day the SC is involved in regulating the prices of sugar, the other day it will be hearing a petition case against increased prices of samosas in Lahore. Then you will find chief justices of three high courts sitting for months hearing a case wherein an American citizen has written a memo to an American general.
Regretfully, most of the time, it's all a waste of national resources wherein the government has nothing to do except prepare for hearings in the court and pay hefty fees to lawyers from the national exchequer. And the lawyers are only able to defer the cases for few more days or weeks, giving a breathing space for the government. However, regardless of this deferment, the judgment remains the same as the court has already made up its mind.
Let both the main political parties move forward to create a constitutional court while the present SC should continue to work as an appeals court and happily get engaged in samosas and sugar pricing issues. — Masood Khan, Jubail
