Sugar scandal: PTI govt conducts 'dubious and inept' inquiry: PML-N

28 May, 2020

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Spokesperson, Marriyum Aurangzeb, has claimed that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government gave subsidy and allowed the export of sugar at a time when there was a shortage of sugar in the country.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, she said that with the given subsidy, the price of sugar spiked up from Rs80 to Rs90 in the country.
She said, "the PTI government conducted a 'dubious and inept' inquiry in the sugar scandal."
Aurangzeb maintained her party's prior stance that the probe was incomplete until and unless Prime Minister Imran Khan appeared before the commission and provided an explanation 'for the hidden facts'.
She said, "the prime minister should resign from his seat because he is responsible for this matter. The prime minister is deliberately not made part of the commission and inquiry, as part of a scheme to throw dust in the eyes of people."
Aurangzeb said that the report by the inquiry commission was made public because Imran Khan had to be saved.
Referring to the PML-N tenure, Aurangzeb claimed that the party had not allowed sugar prices to rise for five consecutive years, asserting that "if anyone can put Pakistan on the path of development, it is only the PML-N."
While criticising the PTI government, she said that the exporters made money in two ways "on the orders of the prime minister" and looted the people.
She claimed that on the one hand, exporters took advantage of the increase in dollar rate, and on the other hand, they took advantage of the increase in sugar price in the country.
Aurangzeb alleged that the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar were guilty in the case.
It was Imran Khan who ratified the ECC decisions, she said.
The PML-N spokesperson said, "after the report was out, we hoped that Shahzad Akbar would give us the news for Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar's resignation but the real culprits in the case escaped from the backdoor."
She demanded that Prime Minister Imran Khan should appear before the commission as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif also had appeared before a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) during his time as the prime minister.
The PML-N spokesperson also claimed that the PTI government did not want to deal with either the coronavirus or the sinking economy of the country.
She said that the PTI government wanted to put PML-N leaders behind bars without legitimate reasons.
Aurangzeb said that Shehbaz Sharif's name was being associated with Salman Shehbaz's sugar mill even though Chaudhry Sugar Mill had been closed for the last two years and not a single rupee's worth of sugar was exported from Salman Shahbaz's sugar mill.
She also questioned, "Why did the commission not call Khusro Bakhtiar and his brother in the mill case?"

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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