ECC, cabinet decisions led to hike in sugar prices: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee and federal cabinet led to a hike in prices of sugar across the country earlier this year.

The PML-N leader was talking to media outside the Federal Investigation Agency’s headquarters, where he met wheat and sugar crisis inquiry commission head Wajid Zia to record his statement.

In his media talk, Abbasi said that he presented all the ‘facts’ before the commission today.

He said that the prime minister should ask his cabinet regarding the increase in rates of sugar, adding that the green signal to export sugar was given despite no surplus amount of the product in the country.

Abbasi said that for sixteen months the export of sugar continued but the government did not take any notice of it.

He said that there should be a tax on imports so it is not possible to import sugar.

“The situation proves that the prime minister is corrupt,” said the senior PML-N leader.

While speaking about PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and the recent Cholistan Development Authority case, he said that the NAB chairman is unable to see sugar, medicine and other crisis.

“This is the situation that they kept opposition leaders in prison yet could not make a case,” he said.

Abbasi said that during the PML-N tenure, the government gave a subsidy of more than Rs20 billion for sugar, which is why the prices did not rise even by a penny.

Abbasi said that the commission should summon Prime Minister Imran Khan and the head of the ECC if it wanted to get to the bottom of the hike in sugar crisis. 

"The head of the ECC is a corrupt and inept man," he said. "If the prime minister takes decisions then he is responsible too."

FIA report

A report by the FIA, released on April 4, claimed that top Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf members were among those who gained from the recent sugar crisis in the country. 

An investigation into the crisis had been ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan in February.

Among the people named in the FIA report were Jahangir Tareen and a brother of Minister for National Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar.

Tareen was said by the report to have benefitted the most from the sugar crisis followed by Bakhtiar's brother.

The report also claims that companies belonging to Moonis Elahi — an ally of the party — also profited from the sugar crisis. Elahi is Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's son and a key member of the PML-Q.