With the damning inquiry report into the sugar crisis being made public on Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s call, senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen has said he is “shocked at the false allegations levelled against him” as he has “always run a clean business”.

“Audit team of [Tareen-owned] JDW Sugar Mills found some additional information about ‘SATTA’ from interviews as well as forensic analysis of brokers of Punjab,” read the report, adding that during his interview with the investigation team, a broker named Aslam stated that in March 2020 he executed forward trades of around 11,135 trucks worth Rs10,292,219,000 with JDW and Ittehad Sugar Mills.

Tareen, in response to the report, also said the entire country knew that he “paid full price to sugarcane growers”.

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“I do not maintain two sets of books. I pay all my taxes diligently. I will answer every allegation and be vindicated IA [sic],” he tweeted.

Earlier, the premier’s aide on accountability, Shahzad Akbar, declared the report public in a press briefing and said that it confirmed PM Imran’s long-held view that businessmen in politics would always put business first.