April 2, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 1: Independent economists and opposition lawmakers on Saturday contested the government’s claims of economic turnaround. They said the recent increase in prices of essential commodities like petroleum, sugar, gas and cement belied the government’s claim of economic stability.

They blamed some of the ruling party legislators of creating artificial sugar crisis, price-hike and following anti-people policies.

They were speaking at a pre-budget seminar, ‘Government Policy and Price-Hike 2006’ organized by their party’s economic coordination committee at a local hotel here on Saturday.

Those who spoke on the occasion included PPP MNAs Sherry Rehman and Naveed Qamar, Senator Rukhsana Zubair and independent economists Akbar Zaidi and Qaisar Bengali.

Akbar Zaidi, a Karachi-based economist, said the government should not claim having achieved high economic growth. The growth, which it claims, was a result of 9/11 and not because of the policies of the present regime, he added.

He said loans had always been provided to Pakistan whenever the military took over. After the fall of a military regime, the foreign debts are left for the civilian government to pay.

Mr Zaidi said the government was increasing trade reserves by selling its assets through privatization. There had been no investment in the country and foreign debts were increasing day by day.

He said health and education expenditure was half of the funds allocated for defence spending. The government should immediately cut down its non-development expense in order to overcome the crisis, he added.

Sherry Rehman said mill owners in connivance with the government had released only 12 to 14 per cent of the sugar stock, adding that majority of the stock was owned by government parliamentarians.

Ms Rehman said Brother Sugar Mills owned by the Chaudhrys had released only 11.28 per cent of its total 31,400 tons of stock while Punjab Sugar Mill owned by PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain released 34 per cent.

She said JDW Mills owned by Minister of Industries Jehangir Tareen had released 54 per cent of its stock while his United Mills released 51 per cent of its total commodity. “Kamalia Sugar Mills of Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan had released 20 per cent stock while Tandianwala Mills owned by the minister had delivered 50 per cent stock to the distributors,” she added.

The PPP parliamentarian claimed that Miran Mills owned by the commerce minister had released just 22 per cent sugar to the market out of its total stock of 45,000 tons.

Similarly, Patoki Sugar Mills owned by former Punjab governor Mian Azhar released 38.4 per cent of its total production.

Ms Rehman said the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had ordered inquiry into the crisis, but it was stopped on the intervention of a top government official.

She also criticized the Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) for turning a blind eye to the crisis, adding that sugar crisis would prevail throughout the year if necessary action was not taken by the government.

Senator Rukhsana Zubairi called upon the government to exempt taxes imposed on sugar and oil on the pattern of India.

“If prices go up then the government should control it by exempting tax and regulatory duties on the commodities. But the present regime is doing nothing in this regard,” she added.

Qaisar Bengali, in his concluding remarks, said since June 2003, the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) was functioning without a director-general just to let the finance ministry freely publish incorrect figures of GDP, FDI, etc.

Mr Bengali alleged that the government was providing wrong data to the people, adding that unemployment had reached its peak and there was no reduction in poverty.

He said in the current price hike, it did not suit the government to impose taxes and earn revenue.