Abbasi, who was flanked by Khurram Dastgir, told reporters after he appeared before sugar and wheat inquiry commission headed by Director General (DG) Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Wajid Zia outside agency headquarters, that the decision of the cabinet and ECC led to a hike in sugar prices in the country.

The prime minister and the chairman ECC are "incompetent and corrupt", he said.

Abbasi said he appeared before the commission on the recommendation of his party.

He presented all the facts before the commission, and did not make any political statement.

Abbasi also said that he told the commission to summon the prime minister and the members of the cabinet regarding the crises.

The former premier said that a green signal to export sugar was given despite there was no surplus amount of commodity in the country. For 16 months the export of sugar continued but the government did not take any notice of it, he said.

To a question about the NAB's fresh summons to the PML-N President, Shehbaz Sharif, he said that the NAB chairman was unable to see sugar, medicine and other crises.

The NAB has become a tool of political engineering, he alleged.

Abbasi said that during the PML-N tenure, the government gave a subsidy of more than Rs20 billion for sugar, which was why the prices did not rise even by a penny and price of per kg sugar price was Rs54.

To another question, he said that they should run the government, and his party would not demand a resignation.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020