Asad Umar responds on Abbasi’s allegations over sugar and wheat crisis

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has responded to former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s allegations, urging the sugar inquiry commission to summon him.

He took to twitter on Monday and said the cabinet had made the decisions on the recommendations of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), therefore he and not Prime Minister Imran Khan was answerable to the inquiry commission. The minister said that the former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had demanded the commission to hold an inquiry against PM Imran and the cabinet regarding the sugar crisis, however, in case any doubts persist in the matter, the commission can summon him [Asad Umar] for further inquiry.

شاہد خاقان نے مطالبہ کیا ہے کے مجھے اور وزیراعظم کو چینی کے والا کمیشن، ایکسپورٹ کی اجازت کے فیصلے کے بارے میں پوچھ گچھ کے لئے بلایے. کابینہ نے یہ فیصلہ ecc کی سفارش پر کیا تھا. اگر سوال ہے تو مجھ سے پوچھا جائے، وزیراعظم سے نہیں. کمیشن سے درخواست ہے کے مجھے ظرور بلایا جائے

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) May 11, 2020

Earlier on Friday, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said that the decisions taken by the Economic Coordination Committee and federal cabinet led to a spike in prices of sugar across the country earlier this year. He was talking to media outside the Federal Investigation Agency’s headquarters, where he had met wheat and sugar crisis inquiry commission head Wajid Zia to record his statement. During his media talk, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had said that he presented all the ‘facts’ before the commission today.

Former Prime Minister Abbasi had said that the prime minister should ask his cabinet regarding the increase in rates of sugar, adding that the green signal to export sugar was given despite no surplus amount of the product in the country. Abbasi said that for sixteen months the export of sugar continued but the government did not take any notice of it. He said that there should be a tax on imports so it is not possible to import sugar.