Where is the writ of state when sugar mill owners, despite clear-cut orders of the PM to release their stocks to retailers at ex-mill price of Rs45 per kg, refuse to make these stocks available. When will enough be enough for their insatiable appetite for greed? The CM Punjab had earlier made a similar announcement in the presence of sugar mill owners. Are we the people of Pakistan to understand that the state is unable to establish its writ when it comes to dealing with members of the elite? Is there not a clear conflict of interest in the ruling political establishment having their hands in the till of this scam? After all, leading politicians across the political divide have all turned out to be sugar mill owners. Why is the state not able to break this cartel when its very formation is against the law? Is it not a fact that the President's family and other leading members of the Sindh provincial cabinet own majority of sugar mills in Sindh? Do Sharif brothers and their fellows in PML-N, PML-Q and PML-F not own the majority of the sugar mills in the country? -SHAHZAD KHALIL, Sialkot, via e-mail, August 26.