By Mubarak Zeb Khan
THE government鈥檚 efforts to ease pressure on sugar prices through floating a tender for the import of 300,000 tonnes of sugar have failed to bring down the consumer price in the domestic market.
The failure to deliver relief at the consumer level highlights deep-rooted structural gaps in sugar sector governance, both at the federal and provincial levels. With no effective policy cohesion and regulatory oversight, the burden continues to fall on ordinary citizens who are forced to absorb rising costs amid persistent market volatility.
The sugar industry is one of the country鈥檚 most politically sensitive, with government and opposition elites controlling several mills. However, blaming mill owners for the sugar crisis simplifies a complex value chain. Vested production interests, speculative brokers, middlemen and inadequate provincial regulatory enforcement create market instability.
These systemic factors fuel recurrent boom-and-bust cycles, turning sugar into a commodity manipulated by multiple acto