Reacting sharply over the government decision to import 200,000 tons of raw sugar, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has urged President Pervez Musharraf to intervene in the larger national interests, a press release of the association said here on Friday. According to a spokesman of the PSMA the decision showed the government policy makers were playing in the hands of elements having vested interests, who had already caused millions of rupees loss to the national exchequer in the year 2000, the release added.

He further said that it was ironical neither sugar industry had sought such an arrangement nor the policymakers had thought it appropriate to consult the stakeholders before taking such unwise decision.

"The decisions taken arbitrarily would lead nowhere but create more chaos to the national economy", he added. He also criticised the government for not taking seriously the PSMA' s proposal to link the sugar price with the sugarcane price.

He recalled the government of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali had brought the industry out of mess by exporting over 750,000 tons of surplus stocks of sugar but the decision of present government to import raw sugar would again put the industry in the same quagmire, the release concluded.-PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005