LAHORE, (APP – UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 18th Aug, 2026) Special Assistant to Chief Minister (SACM) Punjab for Food Safety and Consumer Protection Salma Butt Tuesday said that the Punjab government had introduced a new mechanism for determining the prices of vegetables, fruits, leafy greens, meat and milk.
She was addressing the second meeting of the Price Control Council, jointly chaired by Punjab Agriculture Minister Ashiq Hussain Kirmani, here on Tuesday.
Chairman PAMRA Malik Ahmad Saeed Khan, MPA Farzana Abbas, Director General Enforcement (Price) Imran Qureshi, DG PAMRA Zeeshan Nasrullah Ranjha, DG Livestock Dr Sajjad and other senior officers attended the meeting.
SACM Salma Butt said provision of essential food items to the public at affordable prices was among the top priorities of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif. She added strict measures had been introduced to prevent fake inspection entries, ensure availability of essential food items at officially notified rates and improve the performance of price control magistrates.
She said the “Qeemat App” had been upgraded, making live location (geotagging) and uploading a selfie mandatory for price control magistrates during inspections of shops and grocery stores.
According to her, price control magistrates had also been prohibited from conducting inspections between 10pm and 5am.
The meeting reviewed in detail the performance of 1,635 price control magistrates across Punjab. It was informed that millions of inspections had been conducted across the province from 2023 to August 2026, while fines amounting to tens of millions of rupees were imposed for overcharging and non-display of official price lists. Thousands of arrests were also made and several shops were sealed for violations.
SACM Salma Butt said strict monitoring of prices of naan, roti and chicken was continuing and immediate action was being taken against overcharging and other violations. She said a proposal to restructure the appeal committee was under consideration in connection with amendments to the Securities and Price Control law. A period of 15 days had been fixed for filing appeals against prices of essential commodities, she added.
The special assistant said prices of tomatoes and potatoes had witnessed a record decline compared with previous years, while prices of sugar, flour, cooking oil, poultry and pulses had remained stable during the last six months. She added that onion prices had increased slightly due to the off-season in Punjab, while 64 per cent of its supply was being sourced from Balochistan.
