NAB to prosecute price hikers: Sugar crisis, oil prices
By Syed Irfan Raza
ISLAMABAD, March 9: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will register cases against sitting parliamentarians and government officials involved in sugar crisis and frequent increase in the oil prices, sources said on Thursday.
They said that NAB would complete the probe into the causes of sugar and oil crisis within a month and then take action against those found guilty. “The government has also decided that it will not bear any political pressure in this regard,” the sources added.
Meanwhile, the NAB spokesman told reporters that the high prices of sugar merit serious consideration and the bureau was taking cognizance of the situation.
He assured importers, traders and wholesalers that their business would not suffer.
The government, he said, had already given assurances to the private sector of continuity of a clear import policy.
“NAB does not intend to harass any one. The sole purpose of the exercise is to identify weaknesses and vulnerable areas with a view to plugging loopholes in the process and procedure,” the spokesman said.
The sources said the action would be taken against sugar mill owners and government officials. “Wholesalers and retailers should not be afraid of any such action because the responsibility of the crisis devolves on mill owners and government officials,” they said.
They said hoarding of sugar, lack of proper planning and insufficient sugar cane crop were stated to be the main cause of sugar crisis in the country.
According to the preliminary inquiry of the NAB, a huge quantity of sugar was stocked by industrialists to increase sugar prices under the pretext of increase in international market rates of the commodity.
The country’s sugar requirement in 2005-06 is stated to be 3.8 million tons against the available sugar reserves of 3.2 million tons making a shortfall of 0.6 million tons this year.
The sources said the NAB would also probe how the price of petrol increased in the country by Oil Company Advisory Committee (OCAC) in the name of increase in international prices.
They said the decision of empowering OCAC to set prices of petroleum products was made by the cabinet despite the fact that almost all the committee members were also owners of different oil companies.
