ISLAMABAD – After a lapse of 45 days – the deadline set by the government for the judicial commission to complete its probe into the sugar price increase scam – no one from political and government circles knows if the judicial commission has presented its inquiry report to the government or not, or what are the investigation’s findings in case the probe has been completed, and who was behind the scandal.
A single-member judicial commission on sugar price hike scam comprising former Supreme Court judge Justice (r) Sardar Raza Khan had been notified on January 31 by the government after reaching a consensus with the PML-N, but according to some officials of the Finance Ministry and Industries Ministry, it has so far not presented its report despite the passage of its 45-day deadline.
The PPP and PML-N committees negotiating the implementation of the latter’s 10-point reforms agenda had reached an understanding to establish a judicial commission on January 26, 2011 to investigate the scam and find out who was responsible. On January 31, the commission was notified and the government ordered it to complete its investigations within 45 days (by March 15).
The government had also told the finance minister to facilitate the commission in every way.Finance Ministry and Industries and Production Ministry officials claimed that the government lost interest in the functioning of the commission with the end of the PPP-PML-N coalition government in Punjab on February 25.
Lt General (r) Abdul Qadir Baloch, who was a member of the PML-N committee that held negotiations with the government on the party’s 10-point reforms agenda, said that the government had not contacted any member of the PML-N committee since February 25.
“I think the probe into the sugar price hike scam had to be completed within 45 days … But we do not know whether this report has been submitted to the government or what its findings are,” he said.
