LAHORE: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi has ordered the transfer of Food Secretary Zaman Wattoo.

“Taking a strict action on misstatement and committing misconduct in the sugar crisis, CM Naqvi has ordered immediate transfer of Secretary Food Zaman Wattoo,” a handout said on Thursday.

The CM also ordered the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team to conduct a comprehensive inquiry in this regard. Irrigation Secretary Wasif Khursheed has been assigned the additional charge of secretary food.

A couple of days ago, the Punjab caretaker government blamed a Lahore High Court (LHC) order for a steep increase in the price of sugar, saying that due to restrictions on the government to monitor the supply chain of the commodity it failed to stop the smuggling of sugar to a neighbouring country.

According to a report presented to a meeting presided over by the CM, the sugar mills and speculators had been charging Rs180 per kg against the ‘very fair notified retail price’ of around Rs100 per kg.

“Since May this year (when the stay was granted by LHC) about 1.4 million metric tons of sugar has been sold by the sugar mills at an average of an additional Rs40 per kg. The sugar mills and brokers/dealers/speculators have thus extorted Rs56bn extra amount solely because of the stay order,” the report says.

The “provincial authorities are unable to check movement of sugar and smuggling to Afghanistan through Balochistan due to the stay order”.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023