Here r some facts I shared with @sawaalwithamber

Pakistan's sugar industry has witnessed recurring crisis every few years. Origins of this crisis are political. 50% of the sugar mills are owned by 8 individuals, 50% of output by six groups.
@AmberRShamsi @AsadAToor

Sugar barons are always in power, regardless of the government. Cronyism in Pakistan's sugar market reveals a hard reality: the country needs a change of regime, not a change of government

The entire market is run through administrative actions. Here are a few examples:

Who can open a mill and where?
How prices are determined?
When to give subsidy for exports and when to impose regulatory duties?

The sugar lobby prevails on these matters

In broad political economy terms, there is a net transfer of resources from society to the controllers of sugar industry. During, 2006-2010, around Rs.575 billion were transferred from consumers to the industry

Other losses:

The distorted incentive structure has resulted in reduced cultivation of cotton (yielding a net loss of USD1.4 billion in 2010 prices.

Taxpayers money is spent on export subsidies and consumer subsidy through utility stores

Farmer and finance:

Unlike cotton, wheat or rice crops, sugar farmers receive payments with significant delay

In the 1980s and 90s, sugar mill financing came from public banks. Loans were written off for politically influential firms

As a water intensive crop, Pakistan has no comparative advantage in sugar. On a net basis, importing sugar will be cheaper for society than producing it at home.

The entire institutional incentive structure that sustains this industry can be described as an "extractive institution", to borrow the terminology of Acemoglu and Robinson (Why Nations Fail?)