ISLAMABAD: The Korona Assisted Tiger Forces (CRTF), made up of PTI volunteers, introduced by the ruling party last year, are unemployed, not in action.

“For now, the CRTF does not have a national level task, there is no work to do,” special assistant to the prime minister of youth affairs Usman Dar, who is spearheading the force, told The News.

He said CRTF members remain in close contact with the deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner in their respective areas to provide any assistance to the government. Since there is no lockdown required by the COVID-19 pandemic, CRTF members have no obligation to do so voluntarily; Usman Dar said adding that if the weather improves, they will be reused for different activities.

He said, because these volunteers were connected to the portal, they could be asked to perform certain tasks in a short amount of time. They are available to do any task quickly. When the CRTF was launched, it drew widespread criticism from political rivals PTI and others because the power had no legal backing. Not known to have done any substantial work. This is simply the political arm of the PTI, which has a large number of cardholders, who can be approached to do the work allocated by the party.

Instead of having well-known jobs, certain CRTF volunteers have even sparked controversy in various fields by meddling in administrative matters. Its constitution does not go beyond mere political slogans. Like its nomenclature, this force is spearheaded to assist the authorities in the coronavirus pandemic and ensure the implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) aimed at reducing the spread of disease. But it has never been determined how to do all this because this work is carried out by the bureaucracy according to the law.

In addition, he did not have the power to interfere in administrative matters. While the second wave of COVID-19 has devastated Pakistan over the past months, claiming several deaths and many new infections every day, the CRTF is nowhere to be seen. Neither government leader said anything about the power when it was launched with great fanfare.

Shortly after its creation, Prime Minister Imran Khan tasked CRTF volunteers with “one million members” to check food prices and post them on the portal. He wants the troops to regularly check the prices of beans, flour, sugar and cooking oil in their area. Even if the CRTF did, it couldn’t do anything meaningful. As the forces remain “in operation”, daily commodity prices have skyrocketed. Moreover, the price of sugar continues to run out of control. Formerly sold for Rs55 / kg during the previous government term. But that jumps to over Rs100 / kg. The government is getting shortages of sugar and wheat demanded by a committee. Since then, the prime minister has held several meetings to reduce the price of the commodity but to no avail. The various strict measures taken by various government agencies based on the inquiry committee’s report against the sugar kings have left a negative impact on the price situation. Even large imports of sugar and wheat did not help bring prices down. As the government claims, the CRTF was formed in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, provinces ruled by PTI and its allies. It does not exist in Sindh. The Sindh government had announced shortly after the CRTF was created that it would not allow the troops to operate in its province because there was nothing that could be done, and that it could not allow the interference of political workers in the work of the administrative machinery.

Apart from the performance of the CRTF in the specific areas assigned to carry out its duties, the CRTF is expected to be able to assist PTI in regional head elections whenever it will be held. The main goal of having these volunteers is to become a strength in every area for PTI to show courage in every election exercise.