Farmers Vs Mills: Commissioner told to recover dues

LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Cane Commissionar to recover outstanding dues of three sugarcane cultivators from Gojra-Sumandri Sugar Mills.

Issuing orders on the petition filed by Naseer Ahmad, Muhamamd Riaz and Yasir Javed, Justice Khalid Mehmood Khan directed the Cane Commissioner to ensure the payment of outstanding dues to the petitioners along with markup accrued since the due date of payment. The petitioners had said that they had been providing sugarcane to the mill for the last two crushing seasons. The mills were required to pay them within 15 days of purchase.  However, the payments had not been made for over two years. They said that the mills had ignored an earlier order by the Cane Commissioner in April which called for payment of outstanding dues.  The Judge ordered the freezing of assets and bank accounts of the mills until all dues of the petitioners were cleared.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2011.