Politicians-cum-millowners spared

LAHORE - The Punjab government bowed down before heavy weight political figures running sugar business in the province while the provincial machinery took to task the owners of sugar mills, operated by non-politicians during the recent crackdown to ensure sugar sale at Rs 40 per-kg in the open market, it has been reliably learnt.

The authorities avoided lifting sugar stocks stashed at the godowns of the mills owned by influential politicians after the concerned authorities, the commissioners, faced stiff resistance during the crackdown launched on the directions of Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif.

However, the Baboos took strict action against the mills of non-politicians, lifted their entire stocks under the shadow of armed policemen to show their efficiency. Not enough, the government also issued letters to the owners of such mills, threatening them that the government would take over the mills if they tried to put up resistance against the lifting of sugar stocks.
Investigations based on interviews of some sugar millers and food department officials revealed that the top bureaucrats stayed away from confronting politicians-cum-industrialists, obviously to save their skin.
Former secretary Food Irfan Elahi went on long leave to avoid confrontation with the political figures in sugar industry during the crackdown, a well-placed source said. One of the commissioners along with the raiding team came back from the main gate of a sugar mills situated in Southern Punjab after its owner, a powerful politician in the present regime, told him that, ‘I will teach you a lesson if you tried to enter the mills premises.” Later, the authorities apologetically requested him to provide them few stocks of sugar so that they could throw it in the market to overcome worst shortage of the commodity. “It was a peanut that he handed over to the provincial government after repeated requests,” the source said. More interestingly, in another episode of the crackdown heavy police contingents stormed into the mills of another top politicians to lift the stock. Hundreds of private guards of owner of the mills reached the spot soon after they were informed that the police were going to lift the sugar stocks forcibly. The police left the mills immediately, and the matter was resolved on the intervention of the personalities, who matter in the present regime. On the other hand, the provincial government took strict action against the mills owned by purely businessmen, lifted their entire stocks and deployed police around the mills to keep a check on the movement of sugar besides threatening the millers that the government would take over the mills if they resisted. “I received a letter from the Punjab government that the government has taken over the mill. The language used in the letter was quite insulting for a businessperson,” owner of a sugar mill said, seeking anonymity.

source: nation