Shopkeepers complain of harassment by administrative officials

PESHAWAR: The government, on the one hand, has badly failed to control prices of daily items, while on the other, has let loose officials of at least eight departments primarily the assistant commissioners (ACs) to conduct raids on shops, harass the business people and subject them to heavy fines, complained shopkeepers on Tuesday.

“You can’t help this. The top management sets a target and teams led by the ACs of the respective departments have no choice but to meet the target” revealed a senior official of the provincial bureaucracy, while talking to The News.

Raids are thus conducted in the name of inspection to impose fines and make arrests as per the target set by the top management. One such raid was conducted on Tuesday by an official Sheroz Khan, who claimed to be the Assistant Commissioner Mattani on the shops on the main Kohat Road. At the onset, the team led by Sheroz Khan, who later turned out to be an under-training officer, started harassing the owner and employees at the shop.

He decided to impose a fine of Rs10,000 for lack of corona standard operating procedures (SOPs), which the owner wished to contest at an appropriate forum. Sheroz Khan got furious at the owner’s plea and threatened to arrest him. The owner was forced to accept his ‘crime’ and pay the fine on the spot. The team consisted of a few gunmen and a reader to the pretending assistant commissioner, who was very rude to the people at the shop as well. After entering the shop in a style, the team members had a quick round of the store to display authority with gunmen brandishing weapons and creating panic among the customers busy with shopping. They, then, started issuing directives and filling out a receipt for fine. When asked about the reason for the fine, the reader rudely responded that the price-list of items had not been displayed and people were not being asked to wear facemasks upon entry into the shop.

When asked to provide the official price-list to the shop or at least check prices before going for the fine, he said it was none of his business to carry price-lists with him. The shop owners claimed that they were providing things on subsidised prices to the consumers. “We don’t make profit out of edible items. We are aware of the conditions of the people and situation of the country. We just ensure availability of basic items and don’t care about the profit,” said the owner of the shop.

About the price-list, he said, the department concerned had not finalized official price-list until recently since 2017. “I had personally visited the Food Department and asked for an official price-list and similarly to the deputy commissioner’s offices a few weeks back. But I was told that a fresh price-list was yet to be issued. Why would I not display price-list when I sell items on prices much lower than the official list? But it’s the duty of the departments concerned to provide us with the price-lists and check prices in line with it instead of just conducting raids and insisting on displaying price-list,” the owner said.

This is not the only instance of such a raid or the only department around. At least eight different departments have made it a routine to raid shops in the locality with the sole purpose of collecting fines. Officials from the Food Department, food security, social security, town administration, Labour Department and others pay regular visits to the shops in the name of inspection and collect money in the name of fines, which cannot be contested at any forum. This has troubled the local shopkeepers who have no forum to approach and seek justice. The shop owners have demanded the government to take notice of the situation and provide ease to the shopkeepers.

When contacted, Assistant Commissioner of Mattani, Rizwana Dar, refused to comment on the issue. She rather asked the reporter to visit her office for any such complaint. “This is not the way for you to contact me. We are public servants, not public property. Who gave you my number,” she shouted at the reporter.