The bitter sweet tale

As the federal govt releases the FIA-led sugar crisis inquiry commission’s forensic report

The federal government has released the FIA-led sugar crisis inquiry commission’s forensic report and lifted the veil from the corrupt mess that political sugar barons have created. The sugar barons raked in a “windfall profit” of Rs100 billion this year alone by encouraging price speculation. Then there is the issue of cartels. Six groups apparently control 51% of the production supply. Compounding this is the allegation that some mills would sell using ‘benami’ transactions, essentially black-marketing the sweet stuff. This makes price fixing very easy for the big guns, much to the detriment of both farmers, who are forced to accept prices below the government control price, and consumers who must pay through the nose. Incidentally, one of the ways the mills scammed the government was over-invoicing their input costs.

But more than the technicalities of how they profited, it is who profited, and how they will be punished, that matters most. Key leaders from the ruling PTI and its ally PML-Q are named in the inquiry report, along with Shehbaz Sharif’s son, and the Omni Group, the owners of which are considered to be very close to Asif Ali Zardari. Just as rumours of the Sharifs’ and Zardari’s corruption have dogged them for decades, Jahangir Tareen’s role in the sugar market has been the subject of many coffee table debates. Those debates are now over.

The ball is now in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s court. After decades of railing against Zardari and the Sharifs, he has an opportunity to justly go after their near and dear ones. But will he go after the man who, to many of his detractors, illustrated why Naya Pakistan was an empty promise? Tareen is believed to be one of the PTI’s biggest financiers. The prime minister must prove that those payments were not his get-out-of-jail-free card. Of course, lest we forget, PM Imran also had some choice words for the Chaudhrys of Gujrat before they became his allies. Is retaining control of Punjab more important than punishing the corrupt? Moonis Elahi has already begun claiming he had nothing to do with the company named. Tareen has called the allegations false. Will the PM stand up for his team or for his friends?

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2020.

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