Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
“The accouterments of [Pakistan's] state power and prestige ring hollow when people
are dying in their search for food”1
Unending lines, deafening noise and unruly crowds at subsidized sugar outlets, often they
fight with one another or outlet staff and keeping all ethics aside go crazy and wild. The
situation sometime forces the police to baton charge or scatters them with tear gas. The
scenario shows that these ordinary people are not human rather they are animals. This is
not a scene of Somalia or Afghanistan but it is welcoming of holy month Ramadan in
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The consumer shows craze for a scare commodity that is
“Sugar”. This consumer craze is not only result of artificial shortages but also help the
producers to earn handsome profits. Th e
The people of Pakistan don’t have power, gas, sugar, water, jobs, money, food, security
and hope yet they continue sacrifice for a better tomorrow. We witness every year when
Ramdan approaches, essential commodities either are in short supply or become
expensive. With each passing day, hoarders and profiteers increase their profits by
artificial hoarding of daily commodities. Now again in this Ramdan hoarders and
profiteers, almost all of them Muslims, have once again created a fake shortage of
commodities from the market. The flour and sugar are the main commodities which are
daily used and a must for every Pakistani. We have seen recently flour crisis in Pakistan,
but that is now somehow controlled yet sugar crisis continues unstoppable and has added
to the hardships of masses. This crisis has exposed government’s inability and
incompetence in handling a national crisis. The sugar price was raised by 55 per cent
without any justification just to satisfy the unquenchable greed of mill owners at the
expense of consumers. We will see the sugar industry and roots of this crisis in detail in
this article.
1
Daily Dawn Editorial, 16/08/2009
In size, the sugar sector almost matches the cement sector2, however, it’s many backward
(sugarcane growers) and forward linkages (food processors) in the economy indicate that
its indirect socio-economic impact in overall terms is significantly larger than its direct
contribution to GDP.
At the time of independence in 1947, there were only two sugar factories in
Pakistan. The output of these factories was not sufficient for meeting the domestic
requirements. The country started to import sugar from other countries and huge foreign
exchange was spent on this item. Need was felt to increase the production of sugar.
Keeping in view the importance of sugar industry, the Government setup a commission in
1957 to frame a scheme for the development of sugar industry. In this way the first sugar
mill was established at Tando Muhammad Khan in Sindh province in the year 1961.3
No. of Mills 81
2
Allaunddin Masood, “Impact of sugar crisis, how the “game” was played” Business and Finance Review
Magzine, 24/8/2009
3
Aslam Memon, "Sugar Industry in Pakistan", Pak Economics, Sep 23 - 29, 2002
Table 1: Key Facts of Sugar industry of Pakistan, BOI Govt. of Pakistan
Currently Pakistan is the 5th largest country in the world in terms of area under sugar
cane cultivation, 11th by production and 60th in; yield. Sugarcane is the primary raw
material for the production of sugar. The sugar industry in Pakistan is the 2nd largest agro
based industry comprising 81 sugar mills with annual crushing capacity of over 6.1
4
million tones. According to Ministry of Industries and Production; total crushing
capacity of the Sugar mills is about 505,000 tonnes per day. The average capacity
utilization of the sugar mills during the last five years remained 70% to 74%.
The Sugar industry employs over 75000 people, including management experts,
technologists, engineers, financial experts, skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers. It
contributes around 4 billion rupees only under the head of excise duty and other levies to
the Government are also paramount significance.
The following table shows the area cultivated production and yield for sugarcane
production. In this also we see the comparison of last five years;
Table 2: Area, Production and Yield of Sugarcane, Economic Survey of Pakistan 2008-09
5
S.M. Alam, “Sugarcane production & sugar crisis” Economic Review; Nov, 2007
6
Pakistan Sugar Annual GAIN Report 2008, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
7
Agriculture, Economic Survey of Pakistan 2008-09
According to Annual report 2009 of PSMA the reason is milling policies of the current
crushing season have provided strong disincentives to sugarcane growers. Sugar mills
reduced the price offered per 40 kilos by Rs 5.0 – about US$ 0.08 – and continued the
practice of taking large deductions to meet their cane quality standards, causing cane
growers to shift to more profitable crops. For the year 2009/10 sugarcane production is
forecast at 53.6 MMT, an increase of 4 percent over the previous year due to an expected
increase in area and yield. A shortage of cane supply during the current crushing season
led to an increase in cane prices. This situation benefitted growers who received prices
higher than the indicative prices announced by the Government. This development is
expected to contribute to an increase in sugarcane area and productivity in the ensuing
year. Moreover, last year’s higher production of rice and sunflower led to lower prices
received by farmers, thereby encouraging the switch back to sugarcane.8
8
Pakistan Sugar Annual GAIN Report 2008, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service
kg in 2004-05. For 2008-09, the overall sugar consumption is forecast at over 4 million
tons.
The price of sugarcane accounts for 85 per cent of the total cost of the production
of sugar. The total size of the sugarcane crop was 50 million tons in 2008-09 as against a
bumper crop of 63.9 million tons in the previous year – almost 14 million tons less.
Accordingly, sugar production was expected to be 3.2 million tons as against 4.7 million
tons last year – 1.5 million tons less. Pakistan's total consumption was estimated at 4.2
million tons. Hence, the current year's (November 2008 to October 2009) sugar
9
Anjum Ibrahim “Ownership of sugar mills” Business Recorder, 07/09/2009
production was expected to be one million tons short of the consumption requirement.
However, the country had a carry-over stock of 800,000 tons from the previous year.
Therefore, the estimated shortfall for the current year was 200,000 tons. It has, however,
been a common practice to begin the new crushing season with a carry-over stock of al
least 400,000 tons in order to keep the price of sugar stable. Accordingly, the estimated
shortfall was 600,000 tons assuming a carry-over stock of 400,000 tons.
However on May 4 2009, Iskandar Khan, Chairman, PSMA, stated for the record,
that "at present, sugar mills and TCP have sugar stocks of 2,226,531 tons, and 321,035
tons respectively, totaling 2,547,566 tons. Besides this, there is always a stock of 400,000
to 500,000 tons in the domestic market and pipeline. Based on the current consumption
level, this stock will last for over nine months i.e. up to December 2009, while the next
crushing season would commence in November 2009. We have enough sugar to cater for
our entire year's demand.”10 It is a well-known fact that the sugar consumption rises
during Ramadan. Therefore, before the beginning of this month, that is, early August, the
price of sugar started rising and averaged to Rs52.5/kg from Rs47.2/kg in July. On 26
July, the Government of Pakistan imposed a ban on the export of sugar and removed the
sugar import duty in an attempt to avert a potential sugar crisis. Now what we see is that
hoarding and storage of Sugar in order to raise the price. Along with private Sugar mills
owners, TCP is also having adequate supplies of sugar. TCP chairman Saeed Ahmed
Khan at a news briefing in his office stated that TCP is also holding stocks of 75,000 tons
imported sugar and expects another 50,000 tons to reach Karachi by the end of this month
which would take total stocks of imported sugar to 125,000 tons. The many players are in
this dirty game. They rage from top officials, ministers, politicians, capitalist and ruling
elite.
We have seen how the mismanaged by the government on this important issue.
Again profit margins of capitalists not touched rather public expenses used. On 17
August, Wattoo stated that 50,000 tons of imported sugar would arrive, in 3 days, at a
much higher price. Wattoo stepped in again on 19 August and agreed to an ex mill price
of Rs 47 per kg, for Sindh, and Rs 49.75 per kg for the rest of the country, much to the
10
Anjum Ibrahim “Ownership of sugar mills” Business Recorder, 07/09/2009
chagrin of the people. After much hue and cry, with allegations of Wattoo's complicity
with the PSMA being openly bandied about, the Prime Minister decided to fix the price at
Rs 45 per kg, by slashing GST by 50 percent. Thus the Prime Minister did not touch the
influential mill owners, but reduced government revenue for the year, a fact that may well
raise the budget deficit, unless taxes under some other head are raised.11
• Subsidizing sugar mills through loan defaults and debt write-offs this subsidy
amount is taken from people’s taxes
• Enabling the cultivation of sugar as one of the most water intensive crops and by
put ahead other agricultural possibilities
• Paying higher prices for sugar in the retail market
• Paying for the imports through scarce foreign exchange
• Financing subsidized provision of sugar through public revenues.
He further writes that “Pakistan's worsening food crisis exposes several public actors,
some for their active collusion and others for their passive indifference – or, shall I say,
criminal silence”13. The crisis shows that what are out ethical, religious, spiritual and
moral values. There is only thing is to maximize the profits without anything in the view.
11
Anjum Ibrahim “Ownership of sugar mills” Business Recorder, 07/09/2009
12
Dr Adeel Malik “Sugar and society” Daily Jang 16/09/2009
13
Dr Adeel Malik “Sugar and society” Daily Jang 16/09/2009
The question which arise is still unanswered is; Can faith be defended without protecting
the livelihoods of vulnerable and oppressed masses?
Our political leadership and so-called “Civil Society” have shown its true colors. It is
perhaps the cruel indifference of our elites to this dilemma of the poor that is most
disturbing. In the midst of such chronic food insecurity, the goodness of our elites is at its
full display during Ramadan. Then we have the president and prime minister holding
lavish if tar parties in their lawns. The episode does not stop here; these politicians have
close political ties with the government. Some of politicians directly own the Sugar mills
which shows how hypocrite are our politicians. Dawn newspaper (15/08/2009) states that
these mill owners/wholesales usually have strong political ties with the government
(especially the PML –N) or are in the government and are able to avoid any legal action.
Faiz Ahmed Faiz, famous Urdu poet of Pakistan described the situation in his following
famous verses;
“Banein hain ahl-e-hawas, mudda’ii bhi, munsif bhi
kise wakeel karein, kisse munsafi chahein”
The mills owned by Nawaz family and relatives are Abdullah Sugar Mills, Brother Sugar
Mills, Channar Sugar Mills, Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills, Ittefaq
Sugar Mills, Kashmir Sugar Mills, Ramzan Sugar Mills and Yousaf Sugar Mills.
Kamalia Sugar Mills and Layyah Sugar Mills are also owned by PML-N leaders. Former
minister Abbas Sarfaraz is the owner of five out of six sugar mills in the NWFP.
Nasrullah Khan Dareshak owns Indus Sugar Mills while Jahangir Khan Tareen has two
sugar mills; JDW Sugar Mills and United Sugar Mills. PML-Q leader Anwar Cheema
owns National Sugar Mills while Chaudhrys family is or was the owner of Pahrianwali
Sugar Mills as it is being heard that they have sold the said mills. Senator Haroon Akhtar
Khan owns Tandianwala Sugar Mills while Pattoki Sugar Mills is owned by Mian
Mohammad Azhar, former Governor Punjab. Jeffrey Paige in his famous book “ Coffee
and Power” illustrates the picture in following words, “unprecedented wealth for the few
at the expense of the general impoverishment of the many”
Conclusion
Incomplete………………………..