March 18, 2006	Saturday	Safar 17, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, March 17: Manipulation of the sugar industry by the government and the mills owners is harming the interests of the consumers and growers, social activists stated at a seminar here on Friday.

Participants of the seminar organized by the Network for Consumer Protection said the government and the industry barons were making huge profits in the sugar crisis while consumers were suffering because of the skyrocketing prices of sugar and its shortage.

They said all the government measures regarding the industry favoured the mills owners and not the consumers and growers, the real stakeholders. The growers were not paid fair price for their sugar cane. Years of such exploitation turned the growers away from the crop creating the paradox that the agricultural country had now to import sugar.

Mills owners and government have joined hands to deny a fair treatment to the consumers and growers, the participants said and pointed out that no law existed for protecting the interests of the two. Last week the National Accountability Bureau announced an inquiry into the sugar crisis only to drop the idea within days on the pretext that there was an opinion that the inquiry would push up sugar prices.

Nobody bought the NAB excuse and the irony was that the sugar price still rose after the inquiry was abandoned, the speakers at the seminar said, demanding that the government must expose the real culprits in the sugar crisis.

They thought the root cause of the problem was that the consumers did not stood up to demand their legitimate rights. That encouraged the oppressors to ignore them. The participants added that active resistance on the part of stake holders was needed to safeguard their rights.

They also criticised the representatives of the people for not raising the voice in the interests of common people.

The overconsumption of sugar in the country was also one of the causes behind the sugar crisis, the participants said and urged the consumers to revamp their habits.

The speakers appreciated that the media projected the sugar crisis in the right perspective. The media being the watch dog of the society had played its due role in the crisis, they added.

Our staff reporter adds: Information Secretary of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Siddiqul Farooque on Friday held Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, his economic advisers and some members of the federal cabinet responsible for the sugar crisis.

Issuing a fact-sheet on sugar crisis at a news conference held at the party’s secretariat here, Mr Farooque claimed that the artificial shortage of sugar had been deliberately created despite the fact that the country had about 1.92 million tons of sugar stock.

He said the mill owners had already announced that they had a stock of 1.37 million tons of sugar, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) had a stock of 200,000 tons, while about 150,000 tons of unannounced stock was available with the mill owners. Moreover, he said, according to some estimates, 200,000 tons of sugar would be produced in March and April.

Keeping in view the requirement of the country, he said, the present sugar stock was sufficient to meet the need for the next six months.

Mr Farooque also criticized the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for shelving an inquiry into the sugar price scam and alleged that the inquiry had been closed down directly on the orders of Gen Musharraf.

He claimed that Gen Musharraf had ordered the closure of the inquiry when he came to know that the prime minister, his advisers and some federal and provincial ministers were involved in the sugar scam.