Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan during an address at a ceremony in Attock on Friday said that Sindh shut down three operational sugar mills, which contributed to an increase in the price of sugar.
“The price of sugar in Pakistan has hit Rs140 per kg. I inquired why this was so. I learned that three sugar mills in Sindh, which were operational, were shut down,” the prime minister said.
The prime minister went on to say that he subsequently learnt that due to the reduced supply, the sugar mills in Punjab began to hoard the commodity.
“I told the chief secretary that our law forbids hoarding and so if the sugar mills are doing so, we must retrieve the stock and bring it out to the market so the price drops.”
“We found out that since July, the sugar mills have obtained a stay order against the rule. And so our government was unable to do anything,” PM Imran Khan said.
“This is a gross injustice that the sugar mafia earns billions after having broken the backs of our people. And when the government moves to do something, they obtain stay orders,” he remarked.
PM Khan claimed that there was uproar in India as well over high petrol prices and Pakistan still had the cheapest petrol prices in the region.
“In India today, there is uproar as well [over petrol prices] and the petrol price per litre is Rs150 while it is Rs200 in Bangladesh. [On the other hand] it is the lowest in Pakistan at Rs146,” the premier said.
“The biggest [impact] of what happened was that the oil price first decreased and now in the last three months it has doubled […] when oil becomes expensive, then everything becomes expensive.”
“When there was inflation in the whole world then obviously Pakistan is in this same world and not in the heavens so we also had to be affected. As a result, we fully tried and are still trying to protect our people from this inflation.”
The prime minister’s comments come the same day as the government increased petroleum prices by up to Rs8.14 per litre with immediate effect to ensure the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.
