Government may allow another 600,000 tons of sugar exports, says minister

Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain said the government may allow the export of another 600,000 tons of sugar if domestic production improves, and defended the exports already permitted as a way of getting sugarcane growers better prices.

Mills are expected to start crushing from mid-November, he told reporters at the 29th Sustainable Development Conference, organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad. Any further export decision would depend on production staying satisfactory, he said.

The Associated Press of Pakistan reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar directed the authorities on Wednesday to maintain strategic sugar reserves to meet national demand, so that export of surplus stock does not put upward pressure on retail prices. APP said the sugar export framework is nearing finalisation.

On wheat, Tanveer said imports had improved flour supplies in the domestic market and helped bring prices down. He referred to Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, saying he had also acknowledged a decline in flour prices in Sindh. Corporate farming was gaining momentum, Tanveer said, and the corporate sector was contributing to environmental improvement and to the cultivation of different crops.

On politics, he said Chaudhry Salik Hussain should not have issued the statement he made, adding that the PML-Q is an ally of the ruling coalition and matters were expected to improve in the coming days. He said governance in Punjab was the best and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was working hard, and that Punjab led other provinces in performance review meetings he attended.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar told a plenary session at the conference's closing that artificial intelligence-generated content should carry mandatory labels, that social media platforms should do more fact-checking and open local offices in Pakistan, and that an international convention was needed to combat misinformation. He said TikTok had already introduced such a feature and cited community notes on X as a way of flagging old videos circulated as recent events.

Tarar said the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act was aimed at preventing cyber and digital crimes and did not restrict freedom of expression or journalists' professional activities. He said the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency was establishing regional offices and training staff, and that a Social Media Regulation and Protection Authority had been set up and its chairperson appointed. He called for stronger defamation laws so that citizens need not travel abroad to pursue legal action, and for an effective system of investigation, prosecution and conviction in cases of online harassment and blackmail, particularly against women.

SDPI Executive Director Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri said the conference had examined floods, geopolitical developments, the closure of supply routes and disruption to energy transportation. Misinformation had emerged as another major disruption, he said, citing fabricated reports circulated during the May conflict, including claims that Lahore's port had been destroyed and that Islamabad airport was under attack.

Minister of State for Climate Change Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal told a session on extended producer responsibility that waste collection, segregation and recycling needed strengthening. She acknowledged the role of the informal waste collection sector and said differing plastic regulations and enforcement across jurisdictions created problems, citing the Single-Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations 2023 and Pakistan's participation in the Global Plastic Action Partnership since 2022.