PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Advisor Muzammil Aslam blamed the Federal government for soaring prices of Sugar and asked Shehbaz Sharif to release the hoarded sugar to the market to stabilise prices at Rs142 per kilogram.
In a statement issued on Friday, he said that the Sugar Inquiry Commission was formed by PTI founder Imran Khan in 2020, and he decided to fix the price at 130 per kilogram. He said as a result of the commission crackdown, sugar prices were reduced to Rs 90 per kg.
At the same time, the Competition Commission of Pakistan also issued notices in November 2020 and imposed a penalty of Rs 44 billion on sugar mill owners. The punishments of sugar mill owners stayed in the tribunal and charges against Prime Minister Imran Khan had started.
Since then, this case has not been raised again, and today, after four years, notices have been issued twice to sugar mill owners in the sugar cartelization case. The prices reached Rs. 200. He said that the federal government is using the Imran Khan sugar Commission report, and they are not serious about reducing the prices, as up to 20 ministers in the current cabinet have their mills.
He said that Shahbaz Sharif approved the export of 150,000 tons of sugar in July 2024 and directed all provinces to export sugar proportionally. It was needed that when the prices started increasing, the government should stop the export.
He added that Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur had refused to export sugar. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet decided that sugar export cannot be allowed until the crushing season.
He informed that before the crushing season started, the ECC issued an order for 500,000 tons of sugar. In October 2024, the sugar rate was increased from 142 to 165 in three months, and later it further increased.
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