The revelation by an audit that the National Bank of Pakistan has been pushed close to bankruptcy bv deafults by sugar mills should reveal how close to the only bank still held by the government, which doubles as a Treasury, has been callously looted by a sugar mafia with its terntacles in the highest reaches of government. The enterprises which crop up do not simply have powerful contacts. They are those contacts. Ramazan Sugar Mills, for example, do not merely have access to the Sharif family, which currently holds the Prime Ministership and the Punjab chief Ministership, but is actually owned by that family. Similarly, the Omni Group has unparalleled access to the President and his son the PPP chief. Some representative of the sugar barons is there in each government. The PTI government had both Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar in the Cabinet, and Jahanir Tarin in a very influential position. While at one time individuals might be out of office or in exile, the group as a whole lands feet first.
The sugar barons’ only sin has not been simply to regard NBP as a cash cow, but to get government policy decided according to their will. Thus it has been that sugar exports have been sanctioned, even if that means a local shortage which drives up the price for local consumers. It should not be forgotten that sugar is not just used as a sweetener by individual consumers, but on an industrial scale by beverage and dairy product manufacturers.
It is a truism that millers are not in business for their health, but to make money. However, that relatively innocuous statement becomes problematic when government money is involved. It should not be forgotten that NBP is the government’s banker (payments by the government are made by NBP cheques, it receives payments), in addition to act as a commercial bank. Loans made without due diligence, due to political pressure, have a tendency to go bad. It is not enough to find out which loans have gone bad, but whether those loans were followed by further loans, and how were they made. A thorough investigation is needed.
