PM Imran not answerable before sugar inquiry commission: Asad Umar

ISLAMABAD: Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan was not answerable to the inquiry commission formed to probe the sugar crisis.

This he said after appearing before the probe panel to record his statement in this regard as the chairman of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

“Prime Minister Imran Khan is not answerable to the commission as I was heading the ECC at that time,” Asad Umar said, adding “the premier will never disappoint the nation.”

“The final report will be released within days and then a decision will be taken on the basis of its findings.”

On a question of another extension for the panel, the minister said he was unaware of anything in this regard.

The planning minister had previously expressed his wish to appear before the commission probing subsidy to mill owners and sugar export.

Rejecting Asad Umar’s statement, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said, “The cabinet’s decisions are taken with the PM’s approval so he is responsible for this.”

Talking to Geo News programme Aapas Ki Baat, Abbasi said either he says he does not know anything or he is complicit in this.

Abbasi had also appeared before the commission on Sunday and had recommended that the incumbent planning minister be summoned.

In a post on Twitter, Umar had said the cabinet had made decisions based on the ECC recommendations, hence he and not Prime Minister Imran Khan should appear before the commission to provide an explanation for it.

The minister had been responding to the PML-N leader’s earlier allegations against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf government regarding the sugar crisis. He had noted that Abbasi had demanded the commission hold an inquiry against PM Imran and the cabinet regarding the sugar crisis.

However, in case any doubts persisted in the matter, the commission could summon him for further inquiry.

CM Buzdar summoned

Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar has also been summoned by the commission to testify him on allegedly giving subsidy worth Rs3 billion to the millers in haste in 2019.

The commission probing unusual increased in sugar prices has widened its scope of investigation by summoning almost all the decision makers who have been involved in approving subsidy as well as dealing with export and import of sugar in past five years.

Official sources confirmed to Geo News on Tuesday that the commission is going to record statement of the chief minister today.

‘PM should question his cabinet’

Speaking to media outside the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) headquarters on Sunday, where he had met wheat and sugar crisis inquiry commission head Wajid Zia to record his statement, Abbasi had said the decisions taken by the ECC and federal cabinet led to a hike in sugar prices across Pakistan earlier this year.

He had said the premier should question his cabinet on the increase in the sugar prices and that a green signal to export sugar was given despite no surplus available in the country. For 16 months, sugar exports had continued but the government failed to take any notice.

Abbasi had also said there should be a tax on imports in order to ensure sugar could not be imported. “The situation proves that the prime minister is corrupt,” the senior PML-N leader had said.