ISLAMABAD, Aug 11: Two federal ministers and a former president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League on Saturday ‘refuted’ the report on sugar scam submitted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Federal Minister for Commerce Humayun Akhtar Khan, his cousin and Federal Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Khan Tareen and PML leader Mian Azhar not only challenged the findings of the report, but also termed it “incorrect, misleading, baseless and even politically-motivated”.

Family members of the former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, also denied their involvement in the sugar scam.

PML leader Mian Azhar wrote a letter to NAB’s chairman Naveed Ahsan, informing him that he was never associated with the sugar industry. He said that his brother ‘for a brief period’ held shares in the Pattoki Sugar Mills but later sold all the shares to a chemicals company in 2001. “I am amazed that such a finding was presented to the coutry’s highest court without … basic research relating to ownership and control of sugar manufacturing units,” Mian Azhar said. He urged the NAB chairman to amend the report and to issue a public clarification.

Haroon Akhtar, chief executive of the Tandlianwala Sugar Mills and Humayun Akhtar’s brother, issued a statement saying that the reasons cited for the sugar price-hike in 2004-06 and other facts in the report were totally ‘fabricated and concocted’.

He said the NAB report had ‘incorrectly’ grouped the sugar mill with some other mills to give an impression that the group had the largest sugar stock at a certain time. He said the mill was “a public limited company with more than 1,500 shareholders and Humayun Akhtar was neither a shareholder nor a director in the company”.

Federal Minister for Industries Jahangir Tareen, in a separate statement, termed the report ‘misleading and totally erroneous’, saying that NAB officials had never contacted the JDW Sugar Mills’ management to ascertain the factual position.

The NAB report held eight sitting ministers or their party colleagues responsible for sugar hoarding that coupled with government’s soft policy created the sugar crisis and subsequent price hike over the past three years.

A two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Javed Buttar, had ordered the NAB to submit a report about its incomplete inquiry into the sugar scam on the request of PPP Senator Enver Baig.

The report specifically mentioned Jehangir Tareen, Humayun Akhtar, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Anwer Cheema, Mian Azhar, Erra chief Mian Altaf Saleem, Nasrullah Dareshak, Nawaz Sharif, Shabaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and Sikandar Khan.