LAHORE: The Punjab government informed the Lahore High Court on Tuesday that the federal government was responsible for the sugar crisis as it did not import sugar when its shortage started in 2009.
The Punjab government submitted a detailed report in the court of Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, taking a plea that there was shortage of 1.1 million metric ton sugar in the country in 2009, out of which the Punjab required 0.75 million metric ton sugar.
The court was hearing a petition filed by Imran Ghazi against the hike in sugar prices created through sugar shortage. He contended that the government fixed the sugar price at Rs 72 per kg which was much more than what the Supreme Court had fixed last year.
Petitioner counsel Muhammad Azhar Siddique, who will submit his rejoinder on the report on the next date of hearing, said the Punjab government has submitted a bogus report on sugar crisis as its statistics are wrong and no crackdown was done against the big fish involved in the sugar crisis, only a few small shopkeepers were put to task.
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif wrote a letter on September 3 2009 to Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani about the sugar shortage, suggesting that 1.4 million metric ton sugar should be imported to avoid any crisis. The CM reminded the prime minister on September 11 that it was the federal government’s job to import sugar and the shortage was increasing, as only the Punjab required 1 million metric ton sugar.
The CM wrote that the concerned authorities should have been directed to import sugar at the earliest but it was not done and the countrymen faced sugar crisis. Later in Ramazan this year the federal government gave 35000 metric ton sugar, some of it was sold in Ramadan Bazars and remaining in the market at Rs 63 per kg.
As the sugar crisis deepened during October/November 2010, the federal government promised to give 100,000 metric ton sugar to Punjab and advised to get 36,000 metric ton sugar stocked in Karachi. With the sugar from Karachi stocks in play, the Punjab government fixed sugar price at Rs 72 per kg, when it was being sold at Rs 110 per kg in the market.
The CM also said that Punjab government asked 32 sugar mills to start crushing and accordingly crushing started in Punjab from November 27. The prices have come down now after Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) started providing sugar at Rs 65 per kg.
As per the Supreme Court’s orders the Punjab government was supplying 70 percent sugar quota to industrial consumers and 30 percent to domestic consumers, the report said. The reports said that to control prices, the Punjab government conducted 8818 raids all over Punjab and brought to book 1270 shopkeepers for overcharging; they were imposed Rs 1115750 as fine while 123 FIRs were registered against sugar traders.
