Sugar ‘gamblers’ make tens of millions a day: Shahzad

By News Desk

LAHORE: Shahzad Akbar, the Prime Minister’s adviser on accountability and interior, said on Thursday that sugar speculators earn about 500,000-1,000,000 rupees a day while major “gamblers” make as much as 30 to 40 million daily from speculative trade.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Akbar shared details of the “Satta mafia” and those involved in investing in the “sugar mafia”, during which he said Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen would be prosecuted as per law and insisted “no one will be given an NRO”.

Akbar’s comments came after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked Tareen and his son Ali, among other members of his family in two cases pertaining to financial embezzlement and money laundering.

The PM’s aide said the sugar mafia earned about 5.5 billion rupees through gambling with an increase of a single rupee in the price of sugar. He said the FIA exposed the sugar mafia’s involvement in monetary fraud, speculative trade and money laundering after obtaining evidence of continued increases in sugar prices spurred through artificial shortages of the commodity.

To a question, he said only the court can allow PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz to go to London, adding that she had not given any application to remove her name from the Exit Control List. “Sharif family would not get any NRO and they have to sort out their matter here,” he added.

He said Maryam’s “inexperience severely damaged the PDM” due to which some PML-N leaders “would have reservations on her leadership”.