Daily Times

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday issued notices to the Punjab government and other officials in response to a plea challenging increase in essential commodity prices of chicken and eggs.

A citizen invoked the LHC jurisdiction for directives to the provincial government to ensure control rates of the commodities saying there is no mechanism to control prices of chicken and eggs in the metropolitan city.

Taking up the plea on Friday, a single-member bench of Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh issued the directives to respondents to come up with a response over the petition relating to price hike of the commodities during the next date of hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that earlier, the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) revealed that as many as 19 poultry feed companies were involved in cartelization which led to repeated increase in prices of chicken and eggs in the country.

An inquiry conducted by the CCP stated, “Poultry feed comprises approximately 76-80 % of the cost of broiler meat and eggs. Therefore, the hike in feed prices has affected the prices of chicken and eggs, which are the most commonly consumed high protein foods.”

“From December 2018 to December 2020, the feed mills colluded to raise the poultry feed prices by Rs825 per kg bag, thus making the feed 32% costlier for the poultry farmers,” the inquiry report revealed.