Daily Times

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court directed the Punjab cane commissioner to ensure payment of dues to farmers pending with the sugar mills owned by the Sharif family and other sugar mills of the province.

The bench also directed the cane commissioner to submit a progress report in this regard till February 27.

The bench was hearing a petition challenging shifting of three sugar mills – Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd Rahim Yar Khan, Ittefaq Sugar Mills Bahawalpur and Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills Muzaffargarh – owned by the Sharif family.

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

Khawaja Harris, counsel for the Punjab government, said that under the law a sugar mill was required to seek permission from the department concerned for its relocation. He said that relocation of sugar mills was carried out under the policy introduced by the government in 2015.

The counsel for Haseeb Waqas and Chaudhry Sugar Mills asserted that the law did not require permission for shifting of mills but for establishing new sugar mills. The bench, however, postponed the hearing in the case.

The Supreme Court on February 9 while shifting the case to the LHC on an application of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) general secretary Jehangir Tareen had ordered suspension of operation of the sugar mills.

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