Govt feels helpless against sugar mafia: Durrani

LAHORE: The PTI government is feeling helpless in the face of sugar mafia, said Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) central general-secretary Muhammad Ali Durrani here on Sunday.

Addressing a press conference here at the party's provincial secretariat, Durrani said not a single penny could be recovered from the mafia during the so-called nine-month long action by the government.

Durrani said instead of taking meaningful action against the sugar barons, the PTI government is making people afraid of them by telling them that the consequences of bringing them to justice would be bad.

The PML-F leader accused the government of benefitting the sugar mill owners in the name of subsidy instead of providing relief to the masses. Durrani said what to speak of providing relief to the masses, the price of sugar has skyrocketed from Rs 45 to Rs 95.

Durrani said in order to put an end to the monopoly of sugar barons in country's politics, his party is going to announce a seven-point action plan, which, he hoped, would not only eliminate the sugar mafia but also other mafias.

Central Vice President Maqsood Butt while briefing the media said PML-F's Policy Centre is working 24/7 to find solutions to country's problems. The party's provincial general secretary Mian Mustafa Rasheed said the party had waged a war against the sugar barons under the leadership of Central President Pir Pagara Sab. He said PML-F leadership would visit sugarcane growing areas and would meet farmers, lawyers and people belonging to all walks of life to devise a line of action against the sugar mills owners.