LAHORE - In continuation of his tirade against Sharifs, Federal Minister for Law, Dr Babar Awan on Tuesday held Punjab Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif responsible for recent surge in sugar price saying everything had been settled in a meeting between him and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani with the owners of sugar mills. Talking to the media at the residence of PPP leader Mushtaq Awan, he said that Federal government had set sugar price at Rs 55 per kg and provided the commodity at the same rate to the provinces. He said Shahbaz Sharif should now tell the people why sugar was selling at Rs 150 per kg in the province. He said all market committees in the province had been manned by PML-N workers who might have some role in creating artificial shortage of the commodity. Awan was of the view that after the passage of 18th Amendment all responsibility to provide relief to the people had been shifted on to the provinces. He said there was no provision in the Constitution according to which Federal government could hold the provinces accountable for their failure to control price-hike. He said it was because of the autonomy granted to the provinces. Provincial autonomy was a good thing and Federal government should confine its role to policy making only, he added. To a question, he said only 30 per cent of the total sugar mills belonged to the politicians. He said Punjab rulers were in the habit of criticising President Asif Ali Zardari to conceal their own failures. Awan said that Shahbaz Sharifs governance was so bad that since their coming into power, as many as 1000 suicide attacks had taken place, and out of these 400 occurred in the last four months. 'If they remained in power any more, a trend of 'collective suicides may develop among the distressed people, he observed. In a sarcastic tone, the Minister asked Shahbaz to set up a new 'anti-suicide Department and become its head if he could not control suicides. He said PPP would have no objection to his becoming the head of this new department. Babar said that being signatory to the CoD, the PML-N should throw out 40 lotas (turncoats) from its ranks and improve governance in the province. To a question, he ruled out the possibility of his party quitting the Punjab coalition, saying that PPP will remain part of the government, as people had given it the mandate to share power in Punjab. He said no political party in Punjab Assembly had the required strength to form government single-handedly. He said people living in 400 katchi abadis (slums) in Punjab could not get proprietary rights; however, extensions were made in castles of rulers. He asked Sharifs to review their style of politics, as, in his view, democracy had no room of arrogance. He said Sharifs were very right when they talked of foreign assets of politicians because nobody else but they could have better knowledge in this regard because they had their assets and factories in 11 foreign countries. He demanded that these assets should be brought back. He said that unlike Sharif brothers, PPP leaders did not go into self-exile by handing over their belongings to the NAB, and instead, faced the ruthless accountability by a the then dictator. Awan said that instead of playing politics on non-issues like Charter of Pakistan, PML-N leaders should talk of the multiple problems facing the poor people of Pakistan. He said Nawaz Sharif breached his pledge made with APDM about boycott of the 2008 general elections by his decision to participate in the election process. He said those who used to give dates for ouster of the present government had disappeared from the scene, and the business of those who would make predictions about the future of government had also come to a standstill. In a lighter vein, he said he would now tell them that two dates were important in the coming days-Dec 25th and 31st. To a question, he said that no military man stopped vehicles of Federal Ministers in Islamabad, saying, how could those taught to salute the national flag stop the Ministers at gun-point. He said no such incident took place in the Federal capital. He also rejected Ch Nisars criticism in this regard.