ISLAMABAD, March 4: The announcement by the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee to hold investigation into profiteering by sugar mills is yet another joke played with the people, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Information Secretary Taj Haider said in a press statement on Saturday.

Mr Haider said if the government was really serious in nabbing criminals, they should look for them in their own ranks.

The law in Sindh makes it mandatory for sugar mills to start crushing cane by October 15.

It gives the cane commissioner the power to arrest a mill owner who does not comply with the given cane crushing date as well as take over his mill. The investigation, if any, should start by getting hold of those in the government who were a part of this conspiracy of fleecing people.

Taj Haider said the military government’s longstanding economic policy of converting manufacturers into importers had come into full play in the present sugar scam.

Besides other disasters this policy has resulted in a yawning trade gap that threatens to almost equal our total exports of commodities this year. It were the sugar mills, who in full view of the authorities and with heavy financing from the banks and brokers, were themselves importing sugar from as far as Brazil during the cane crushing season and hoarding it.

He said the government provided a timely shot in the arm enabling the hoarders to multiply their profits by purchasing 300,000 tons of sugar at $380 per ton, when the rates in the international market were hovering around $250 per ton. This was a master stroke played by the ministry concerned which skyrocketed the internal and international prices of sugar almost on an hourly basis, he added.

The PPP information secretary said sugarcane was fetching a good price these days, but everyone knew that it was the middleman who was pocketing huge profits. The growers have not been able to even recover their costs.

Taj Haider pointed out that the so-called investigation was being carried out by those who had themselves committed the crime of fleecing people.