Moonis says not part of any sugar mill management

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Moonis Elahi, in a tweet, said, "As stated earlier I am not involved in the management nor am I on the board of any Sugar Mill."

"I strongly support the recommendation of commission to control satta/speculation including new legislation to help government control sugar price manipulation," he said.

PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen was left "shocked" at the claims made against him after the findings from the sugar inquiry report were made public on Thursday.

According to the report, "Audit team of JDW Sugar Mills found some additional information about 'SATTA' from interviews as well as forensic analysis of brokers of Punjab."

"During his interview with the Team, broker Mr Aslam stated that during the month of March 2020, he executed forward trades of around 11,135 trucks amounting to Rs10,292,219,000 with the JDW Company and Ittehad Sugar Mills," it reads.

Tareen, responding to report and the briefing, said, "I am shocked at the kind of false allegations levelled against me. I have always run a clean business. All Pakistan knows I always pay full price to my growers."

"I do not maintain 2 sets of books. I pay all my taxes diligently. I will answer every allegation and be vindicated IA," he said.

For his part, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif said that the report is "nothing but falsehood" and that the commission did not record the statement of the "real culprit Imran Khan".

Speaking in Geo News' programme "Capital Talk", he said that "PM Imran is behind the scandal".

"My children have been named in the inquiry report but they did not export sugar."

Meanwhile, PML-N's Malik Ahmad Khan said that the federal and Punjab governments did not hold anyone responsible for providing subsidies.

"They had to identify the ones responsible [for giving subsidies] in the report, which they failed to do," he said, adding, "Was action taken against those who gave false reports to the prime minister?"

Khan said that the FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) was looking after matters pertaining to the sugar mills and they did "not mention" anything about double records.

"The inquiry commission's main objective was to probe the export of one million tonnes worth of sugar which they did not do," he said.

He claimed that during Shahbaz's government, the price of sugarcane was not reduced nor was the price of sugar allowed to increase.