Jahangir Khan Tareen, a senior but estranged leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has said that he warned the government on February 14 of the imminent sugar crisis, but nobody in the government circles bothered. 

In a tweet on Saturday, Tareen said he had recommended tax-free import of the commodity to keep the prices under control. He tweeted on Saturday, “On 14-02-20, I said on record that a price hike is imminent but can be halted by importing sugar, free of all taxes. The natural competition would have stabilize prices. Price was Rs.80/kg then. I wish Govt had followed that advice so we could have avoided this current crisis.” 

https://twitter.com/JahangirKTareen/status/1297172906749943808

Earlier this week, Tareen said, “ridiculous attempts” were being made on the electronic media to malign his sugar mills. He said in a tweet that sugar millers could not be held responsible for the actions of dealers who simply buy the commodity from sugar mills and take it wherever they want to. He wrote, “Ridiculous attempt to malign the name of JDW Sugar Mills on multiple TV channels alleging JDW Sugar Mills sugar being “caught” We sell sugar to dealers. Once they lift sugar from our mills after payment, it is their Sugar, not ours and we have no control over where they take it.” 

Tareen is currently living in the United Kingdom. He left Pakistan a couple of months ago after an inquiry commission found him and some other political bigwigs involved in the sugar crisis.

After findings of the inquiry commission, cracks started appearing in the relationship between Tareen and Prime Minister Imran Khan. 

However, Tareen said this week that he feels sorry for the cracks that appeared in his relationship with Khan, but he was hopeful that these cracks would disappear soon. Talking to a private news channel, Tareen said he was happy to hear prime minister’s views about him during a recent TV interview. 

Prime Minister Imran Khan had said during an interview to a news channel on August 18 that Tareen had not committed any crime and that it was sad to hear that Tareen’s name surfaced during an inquiry into the sugar crisis.  

Tareen said that Khan’s latest remarks about him dispelled the impression that he had forgotten his old friend. He said that Khan’s remarks during the TV interview showed he had not forgotten his old friend. He said it was Khan’s greatness that he did not forget him.