Sugar crisis: Khawaja Asif says 45% mill owners are from PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Khawaja Asif said on Thursday that 45% of sugar mill owners are from the PTI, urging the government to expose the perpetrators of the sugar crisis. 

The former foreign minister was speaking during a National Assembly session during which he talked about the recent sugar crisis in the country. 

Read more: After wheat shortage, Pakistan now faces sugar crisis

"Every day, the price of sugar is increasing by up to Rs5-6," he said. "The prime minister has admitted that 'I am surrounded by mafias'."

Asif called on the government to expose the mafia that was "playing with people's hunger" and making money from the sugar and wheat crisis. 

"The [sugar mills] of Zardari, Nawaz and Shehbaz Sharif have closed down," he said, saying that 45% of sugar producers belonged to the PTI. 

Asif called on the speaker to empower the National Assembly and make committees to get to the bottom of the sugar crisis. He said that if this issue was not resolved, then the government and politicians will both be held responsible for it. 

Sugar prices have started creeping up in recent days, on the heels of the wheat crisis that saw the staple food's prices increase manifold in the past couple of weeks. 

During the incumbent government's 15 months, sugar prices have shot up to as high as Rs64 a kilo. However, during the last month, the wholesale rate of sugar rose from Rs64 to Rs74 per kg and an acute shortage of the product surfaced in the country.