The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has finally widened its probe into the multi-billion rupee sugar scam and initiated action against two mills in which federal minister Khusro Bakhtiar and his family members are major shareholders. According to officials quoted in the local press, this investigation was launched after FIA found links between these mills and sugar price manipulators (satta agents) that corrupted sugar price in the market and made illegal windfall gains. And since this comes on the heels of FIA summoning former Pakistan Tehreek I Insaf (PTI) secretary and noted sugar baron Jahangir Tareen and his son Ali Tareen, the signs are good and it seems that this inquiry will come full circle in not too distant the future.
This move should also silence some of the government’s more front-footed critics, who have claimed all along that the sugar investigation is yet another witch hunt to target the opposition. Usually nothing comes of such investigations precisely because sugar barons occupy both sides of the aisle in the halls of power in Islamabad. So even when those in the opposition begin to heel the heat, they can count on fellow barons in government to help bail them out; to save their own skin if nothing else. And that is what was expected this time as well; that even as the noose tightened around sugar mill owners from the opposition bloc, not much would be done about those in government.
Therefore FIA’s actions this time give reason for hope. Investigations so far have revealed quite clearly how mercilessly these people use their influence to exploit the entire chain from getting land meant for other crops for sugarcane production right up to the point where their small armies of speculators inflate the end price of sugar out of the approach of most Pakistanis. This has led to artificial inflation in one of the most important commodities of daily use and so far the government hasn’t been able to do much about it despite the prime minister himself promising many times to use “all the might of the state” to sort them out. So far the PM has stuck to his word and not let any insiders influence the investigation. Hopefully FIA will complete all its findings soon enough so the even more important process of convicting those who are found guilty and making them pay can commence. That should also bring some rationality in the price of sugar rather quickly. *