Members from both sides of the aisles in the National Assembly on Thursday demanded of the government to take serious action against sugar hoarders and bring its price to the normal level. Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar said that the government has increased the price of sugar succumbing to the pressure of the mill owners and hoarders and not in favour of the consumers.
"A transparent probe be conducted into the scandal as to why the prices of sugar were increased overnight to such a level", he maintained. Nisar said that there should not be any talks with such Mafia who hoarded the sugar and increased the prices without any reason.
"We are not in the Houses for protecting our mills, rather we are here to serve the people," he said. His party has decided that sugar prices would be Rs 45 per kg in Punjab and efforts would be made to motivate other provinces to follow the suit, he added. Sugar prices could be brought to Rs 40 if the government withdrew Rs 5 excise duty per kg.
MQM lawmaker S A Iqbal Qadri also condemned the government move to increase sugar price on the pressure of the sugar Mafia. He maintained that a strict action have to be taken against the hoarders to bring the price at normal level as it was some days earlier.
PPP lawmaker Nadeem Afzal Chand also demanded of the government to take serious action against the sugar Mafia. He said that action must be taken against all the mill owners irrespective of their party affiliation. "If mill owners increase sugar rate then they should also pay to the growers accordingly," he said.