Sugar price surges to Rs100/kg in various cities

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI/MULTAN/PESHAWAR: Sugar prices across the country have surged to Rs100/kg or more in 10 major cities, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Sunday. Data shared by the PBS revealed that sugar is being sold expensively throughout the country, in Karachi for Rs110/kg.

The commodity is being sold in Islamabad and Rawalpindi for Rs105/kg while the average price of sugar throughout the country has reached Rs98/kg. In six cities across the country, the price of sugar has risen to Rs100/kg, said the PBS.

In Quetta, Bahawalpur, Multan, Peshawar and Sialkot, the price of sugar has reached Rs100/kg while it is being sold for Rs98-100/kg in Hyderabad. In Faisalabad, it is being sold for Rs98/kg. In Khuzdar, sugar is being sold for Rs97/kg while in Sargodha it is being sold for Rs96/kg. In Sukkur, the price of sugar is Rs98/kg, in Larkana Rs95/kg while in Bannu is it being sold for Rs95/kg.

Last year, PM Imran Khan had tasked the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to investigate the sugar crisis throughout the country and find out who benefited from it.

A report by the Federal Investigation Agency released last year had claimed that top PTI members were among those who gained from the recent sugar crisis in the country. An investigation into the crisis had been ordered by Prime Minister Imran Khan in February 2020.

Among the people named in the FIA report were Jahangir Tareen and a brother of the-then Minister for National Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar.

Tareen was said by the report to have benefitted the most from the sugar crisis followed by Bakhtiar's brother. The report had also claimed that companies belonging to Moonis Elahi — an ally of the party — profited from the sugar crisis. Elahi is Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi’s son and a key member of the PML-Q.