THE Competition Commission of Pakistan has issued show-cause notices to 10 sugar mills in Punjab for violating antitrust laws, accusing them of colluding to delay the crushing season for two weeks to Nov 28 and fix the sugarcane procurement price at Rs400 per maund. The CCP has discovered that these mills held a meeting on Nov 10 — five days before the official deadline for the commencement of the new harvest — where they collectively made these decisions. The relevant authorities are in possession of minutes from the meeting to prove the allegations. The question, however, is: will the CCP succeed in taking the investigation to its logical conclusion, let alone punish those who have breached the competition law? One of the mills that have been served with a notice is said to be owned by a member of the federal cabinet. Another is owned by a PPP leader, yet another by a former sports franchise owner, while two belong to politicians from Rahim Yar Khan. Others too are owned by powerful, politically connected business groups. The host of the millers’ meeting is itself one of the country’s largest conglomerates. Individually and collectively, these groups retain top-tier, expensive lawyers on their payroll — the kind that can make implausible claims sound convincing enough for even the adjudicators to consider them seriously.

This is the third major inquiry that the CCP has initiated against sugar millers since 2009. Its first probe had found preliminary evidence of the involvement of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association in price-fixing and production manipulation. But the industry managed to stall the investigation by securing stay orders from the courts. A decade later, another probe was launched into anti-competitive practices after a steep spike in sugar prices that was triggered by domestic shortages aggravated by the industry’s “hugely subsidised” exports. This time, the antitrust watchdog slapped the industry with Rs44bn in fines. The millers again got relief from the courts on technical grounds. The matter, along with dozens of cases related to sugar cartelisation, remains in legal limbo. It is, therefore, no surprise that the public has its doubts regarding the fate of the latest inquiry. Their scepticism is not about whether the CCP can prove its case or not; it is about whether Pakistan’s powerful business lobbies can ever be held accountable for their often illegal practices.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2025