‘PM should face inquiry, not CM’

Says PM Khan, who allowed the sugar exports, was not named in the report of the commission

KARACHI: Objecting to calls for Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to record his statement before the sugar inquiry commission, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah stated that it was Prime Minister Imran Khan who should face an inquiry and not the CM.

Addressing a press conference alongside Sindh government spokesperson Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Thursday, he pointed out that Prime Minister Imran Khan's special assistant on accountability, Shahzad Akbar, had insisted on focusing on the Sindh CM without mentioning Punjab CM Usman Buzdar, whose tenure was actually being investigated by the sugar inquiry commission. He added that the inquiry period did not include the time when sugar was subsidised in Sindh.

Nasir highlighted that the commission's report stated that sugar prices had spiked in domestic markets due to exports, adding that if prices were being affected, exports should have been halted.

"PM Khan, who allowed the sugar exports, was not named in the report of the commission," he pointed out, adding that the premier should be investigated.

The minister claimed that whenever sugar was subsidised in Sindh, it was for the farmers' benefit, adding that in the past, it was subsidised because the mills had sugar in abundance. "The provincial government did not give subsidy on sugar to facilitate the big fish, but only to help the growers and farmers."

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2020.