Daily Times

LAHORE: A division bench of Lahore High Court turned down the Sharifs lawyer’s request to allow sugarcane crushing at their mills.

The bench also sought fresh report from the sessions judge Muzaffargarh about compliance of a Supreme Court stay order by Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills and deferred hearing of a case.

The management of Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Ittefaq Sugar Mills and Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills Muzaffargarh had also filed appeals against a decision by a single bench striking down the shifting of the mills.

During the hearing on Monday, Ali Sibtain Fazli, counsel of Haseeb Waqas and Chaudhry Sugar Mills, pointed out that the matter of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills was not identical to other two mills so they should be allowed to start crushing.

The bench turned down the request and put off hearing until Tuesday (today).

The Supreme Court on February 9 while remanding the case to the LHC on application of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf General Secretary Jahangir Tareen had ordered to suspend operation of these sugar mills.

Earlier, the petitioner’s counsel had said that secretary industries issued the impugned notifications on December 4, 2015 with mala fide intention to facilitate the desired relocation of these sugar mills. He said under section 3 of Punjab Industries (Control on Establishment and Enlargement) Ordinance, there was a restriction on establishment of industrial undertaking without provincial government’s permission.

He submitted that under this section, various notifications had been issued imposing restriction on establishing new sugar mills in the province. He pleaded that it was the government’s consistent position that relocation amounts to establishing of a new industrial undertaking.