Social scientists must scrutinise the impact the sugar industry in Pakistan has had on people’s socio-economic bearing. Now that the sugar industry has acquired enough strength to stir up a crisis for the state despite all its might and resources, a dispassionate analysis of its proliferation since the late 1980s is warranted.

It seems that rather suddenly, the industrialists, some of whom nurtured political ambitions, began investing heavily in the industry and installed a number of sugar-producing units. Sugar mills dotted the entire country by the early 1990s. You name anybody in politics and he has a stake in the sugar industry. This included almost every political family in the Punjab — from the Sharifs of Lahore to the Chaudharys of Gujrat and Cheemas of Sargodha to Jahangir Tareen. Let’s not forget Humayun Akhter and his family. They put their resources in the agro-based industry, which became so powerful as to determine the economic priorities of the state.

It was through the sugar industry that a new entrepreneur class came into being. It had a new set of rules and business ethics. These people were marked different from the established business families who played by the traditional rules of business.

The people having power and influence in the province of Sindh also joined the bandwagon. Now, as the word goes around, Asif Ali Zardari more or less monopolises that industry. His cronies and frontmen, it is alleged, do not shy away from arm-twisting tactics at any stage - from purchasing sugarcane from the farmers to crushing and fixing the price of the produce, his is the ultimate and decisive voice. Any person that Zardari considered worth his benefaction, he advised to invest in sugar industry. The liquidity was arranged through bank loans. Whether these loans were ever paid off or not is anybody’s guess.

But our bigger concern here is regarding the agricultural economy. My contention is that once sugarcane substituted cotton as the main cash crop in much of Pakistan, it had catastrophic implications. No one knows if a feasibility study was undertaken when this shift was taking place. Was there any future projection made? It will be greatly appreciated if an economist sheds light on these questions.

In the central and south-eastern Punjab, growing cotton has gone entirely out of vogue. My lay understanding as a scion of a peasant proprietor clan is that the cotton crop was more profitable for the national economy and stood farmers in good stead. It fed the textile industry, which had been the mainstay of Pakistan’s foreign exchange earnings.

It was through the sugar industry that a new entrepreneur class came into being. These people were marked different from the established business families who played by the traditional rules of business.

Besides, cotton textile and its subsidiary products were Pakistan’s major export. It has now been replaced in these areas by Bangladesh and Malaysia. Interestingly, these countries don’t even grow cotton. They import it and yet their cotton exports exceed Pakistan’s by a big margin.

Cotton textile industry has a greater scope for value addition. Raw cotton, refined cotton, yarn, cloth, which may have several varieties, could help generate more employment and ensure greater fiscal returns. Cotton has been one of the several catalysts of transformation whereby the industry took over agriculture as the principal instrument of wealth creation. Those who have studied industrial revolution are cognizant of the fact.

With sugarcane as our main crop, the situation is changed. Sugarcane is not only a far more labour-intensive crop, it is not cost-effective. The government has been paying large amounts of subsidy to enable sugarcane manufacturers to export their produce. Also, the irrigation water requirement for sugarcane crop is tremendously high. The manufacturing cost incurred on Pakistan’s sugar is higher than what it costs in the international market. Yet we went on to establish 78 sugar mills to manufacture an uneconomic product.

The supply-demand or market trends did not seem to have been taken into consideration while prioritising sugarcane over cotton. This is an irony. It is also extremely important to highlight the atrocious attitude of the sugar mill owners towards the growers. Payments are not made in full and there are considerable delays. In the Jhang-Chiniot area, Ramzan Sugar mill is notorious for such behavior towards the cultivators. Let me take my readers back in time a bit.

When the British thought of bringing in canal-colonisation in the Punjab in 1859, revenue enhancement was the prime reason for the initiative. The same year, they started laying the railway network. By 1861, the situation had become unfavourable because the United States of America had stopped supplying cotton to England. The British had all the more reason to feel trepidation at the prospects of its textile industry taking a fatal hit.

Completely overtaken by the sense of urgency, they pursued the mega-project with utmost seriousness. Steady progress was ensured and big chunks of land were brought under plough. South Punjab and some parts of Sindh were found suitable for cotton, too. An alternative had been found to the cotton previously sourced from the USA.

Peasants in the colonized Punjab were persuaded to direct all their energies in producing cotton and wheat. Before the turn of the century, the Punjab had become an important producer of cotton. As for its wheat production, the province was hailed as the granary of the entire subcontinent. Cotton had been the main source of easing economic constraints for the peasant class. Undoubtedly, these two crops opened the doors of relative prosperity for the peasants. Sugarcane was also cultivated but not on a massive scale. Things have been ominous ever since the cultivation of sugarcane began as a result of the implementation of a top-down policy framework. The interests of entrepreneurs, who are also political players, are watched and preserved. Thus, their fundamental aim is to safeguard their own economic interests. As far as the national interest is concerned, who cares?