Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the government would uphold the law without discriminating between the weak and powerful, as he slammed sugar mill owners for hiking up sugar prices.
Responding to a question on Jahangir Tareen’s hearings while addressing media persons in Sargodha, the PM said: “I am ready to listen to everyone’s reservations, but there is one thing they should understand. Sugar prices increased by Rs26 in a year or so.”
An increase of Rs26 per kg in sugar prices translates into Rs120-130 billion, and this huge sum of money went from the citizens’ pockets to the sugar mills, PM Imran Khan said.
“It is obvious: the government has to work in the best interests of the people and we’ve asked the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) to probe the matter. During the investigation, several horrific things were revealed to us.”
The premier said he was ready to speak to those who had reservations against the proceedings, but stressed that the government would uphold the law — the same law that is applicable to everyone.
PM Imran Khan said the “elite and the powerful are the actual menaces behind the country’s downfall.”
“If you combine the amount of corruption done by all poor people in jails, it will amount to a maximum of Rs2-3 billion.”
The premier, speaking on PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif’s bail, said if they are unable to convict people against whom evidence was available, the country could not prosper.
A day later, on Thursday, his aide on accountability and interior Shahzad Akbar said it was regrettable that a few were threatening watchdogs for questioning them “only for personal gains”.
He was tweeting on reactions by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to the transfer of 127 kanals of land belonging to the Raiwind residence of the Sharif family back to the government.
Punjab Revenue Department was ordered, however, a court in Lahore approved the stay order and summoned all parties to the case on April 27.
The court of civil judge Faheemul Hassan Shah issued the stay order after Nawaz Sharif’s nephew Yousuf Abbas Sharif and other members of the Sharif family, through their lawyers, approached the court.
