Sugarcane price controversy: Growers delay Monday’s protest in Karachi owing to ongoing litigation

The govt’s rate of Rs172 per 40kg is Rs8 lower than that in the Punjab and K-P

KARACHI: It seems the sugarcane price row among farmers, mill owners and the provincial government will likely be settled in the Sindh High Court (SHC), as was the case last year.

SHC’s Hyderabad Circuit Bench separately heard on Thursday two petitions praying the court's intervention for fixing the price, and put the provincial government's related departments on notice for January 14.

The ongoing case prompted the Sindh Abadgar Board and Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, two leading lobbying groups of farmers, to postpone their January 11 ‘sit-in’ demonstration in Karachi.

In an unprecedented move, the government fixed this week the sugarcane price at Rs172 per 40 kilogrammes, which is Rs8 lower than that in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In Sindh, sugarcane farmers are always paid Rs2 to Rs5 higher than other provinces owing to higher sucrose content in the crop.

The province's growers have been demanding Rs185 per 40kg, which is Rs3 more than what they were paid last year. As per the Sugar Factories Control Act, the government is supposed to notify the rate as soon as crushing season begins from October 1 every year.

In the hearing of the first petition, filed last month by 10 farmers through advocate Ali Palh, the additional advocate general submitted a copy of the notification and requested the bench to dismiss the petition as the price had been notified. However, Palh argued that his clients’ main prayer from the court was to order the government to set the Rs185 rate, which has not been done.

In the second petition, filed by Sindh Abadgar Board’s office bearers on Thursday, the petitioners' counsel Ayatullah Khawaja pleaded the court for the Rs185 rate after which the bench fixed hearing of both the cases on January 14.

A similar controversy over the crop’s rate occurred last year as well, with protests by farmers demanding a better price. The dispute was finally settled in SHC through a petition filed by Pakistan Sugar Mills Association. A rate of Rs182 was fixed for the crop and on court orders, the Sindh government shared Rs12 per 40kg subsidy and the remaining Rs170 per 40kg was paid by the mill owners. This is the second year when the court has been involved in a task previously completed after consultation between farmers, mills and the government.