{"id":81895,"date":"2025-07-30T23:57:33","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=81895"},"modified":"2025-07-30T23:57:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:57:33","slug":"miftah-ismail-clarifies-sugar-policy-controversy-denies-corruption-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/pakistan\/miftah-ismail-clarifies-sugar-policy-controversy-denies-corruption-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"Miftah Ismail Clarifies Sugar Policy Controversy, Denies Corruption Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad (ABN News): Former Finance Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/pakistan\/shahid-khaqan-abbasi-miftah-ismail-announces-launching-of-awam-pakistan-party\/\">Miftah Ismail<\/a> has stated that the issue surrounding the sugar policy and the World Food Programme (WFP) contract dates back to before his tenure and that he has no personal involvement in any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on ABN News\u2019 program Sawal Se Aagay, Ismail clarified that the pilot phase of the sugar procurement program began in 2019, prior to his appointment as a federal minister, and was later expanded.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that the international agreement for program expansion was signed in March 2022 and that he had already been removed from office in September 2022. \u201cI was never the final decision-maker, nor do any corruption allegations apply to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI participated in WFP tenders but was not involved in selling goods directly. Whatever happened afterward was beyond my knowledge or involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the broader context of government spending, Ismail pointed out that while Rs 900 billion are allocated for various government programs, sectors like railways receive only Rs 24 billion, and some schemes get as much as Rs 109 billion. \u201cThese allocations reflect the government\u2019s priorities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Ismail also criticized the sugar policy-making process, noting that decisions made in 2019 were not under his watch. He expressed concern over the undue influence of sugar mill owners on policy, sidelining farmers. \u201cEvery two years we face a sugar crisis. This must be regulated. Sugar industry stakeholders impact the policy while the farmer remains ignored,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"PM Targets Sugar Mafia Amid Rising Economic Uncertainty \u2014 Can the Government Stabilize the Situation\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DN0EF9GrnPw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He questioned the reliability of data provided by the sugar commissioner and industry representatives and claimed that committee members often engage with mill owners rather than farmers. Ismail concluded by suggesting that the sudden focus on accountability seems politically motivated, hinting that the real issue may lie elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Islamabad (ABN News): Former Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has stated that the issue surrounding the sugar policy and the World Food Programme (WFP) contract dates back to before his tenure and that he has no personal involvement in any wrongdoing. Speaking on ABN News\u2019 program Sawal Se Aagay, Ismail clarified that the pilot phase of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":81896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,147],"tags":[375,19037],"class_list":["post-81895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan","category-politics","tag-miftah-ismail","tag-world-food-programme"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81895"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81898,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81895\/revisions\/81898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}