In Pakistan, sweetening the fortunes of a select few requires making life progressively more bitter for the common citizen. The Economic Coordination Committee's (ECC) approval to export 108,000 metric tonnes of sugar is a policy flip-flop that highlights structural exploitation. The state is actively assisting in emptying the domestic buffer stock, laying the groundwork for a predictable domestic price hike. This strategy serves a sugar cartel that spans Pakistan's political spectrum.

The absurdity of the policy is striking. Just a year ago, the state spent substantial taxpayer money to import expensive sugar to stabilise a domestic market destabilised by artificial shortages and inflation. Today, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has reversed course, arguing that a projected bumper crop requires exporting that same stock to relieve millers of a "liquidity crisis". This strategy follows a familiar pattern: millers declare a surplus to secure export approval, prices spike due to sudden domestic shortages,........

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