Cabinet reaffirms resolve to bring sugar barons earning undue profit to book.

ISLAMABAD -- The Federal Cabinet on Tuesday welcomed the verdict of Islamabad High Court on the sugar inquiry case and reaffirmed the government's resolve to bring the sugar barons, who had earned undue profit, to book.

Briefing the media here about the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz said the cabinet directed that actions on the recommendations of Sugar Inquiry Commission should be carried out as per the stipulated timelines given to relevant institutions.

The step, he said, would bring improvement and transparency in whole value chain of sugar production from purchasing of the sugarcane to marketing of the sugar. The process of determining the sugar price would be visible in next three months as the government had revamped the entire network of institutions responsible for monitoring and regulation of the sugar industry. It would result in the provision of commodity to the people at reasonable rate and help make recoveries from those who had exploited the system for minting money at the cost of consumers, he added.

Shibli said the cabinet also expressed concern on the rising prices of flour and endorsed the prime minister's directive for rectification of the situation by corrective steps, including release of nine million tons of wheat by the Punjab government and control of its smuggling.

He said a committee under Advisor to the PM on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh had been constituted to monitor the situation, besides streamlining and making the matters relating to the wheat and flour more transparent. The prime minister directed the committee to determine the demand and supply of flour on scientific basis with collection of complete data.

The minister said the import of wheat was allowed to keep its prices stable as 25 million tons of the commodity was available in the country against the requirement of 27 million tons.

He said the federal cabinet appreciated the performance of Ministry of Education for introducing a uniform curriculum for all the educational institutions in the country , including religious seminaries. The cabinet, he said, also discussed the online education by utilizing modern technologies in the post-coronavirus outbreak situation. Prime Minister Imran Khan emphasized on making the facility available in far flung areas of the country, especially Balochistan where the availability of Internet was an issue.

The prime minister directed...