LHC summons record of sugar production, sale

CJ also directed SBP to collect data of all banks to ascertain which mills had pledged sugar stocks against loans

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Mamoon Rashid Sheikh on Wednesday summoned complete record of sugar production, sale and storage on a petition seeking directives to authorities concerned to check its export to control the skyrocketing prices.

The CJ also directed representative of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to collect data of all banks to ascertain which mills had pledged sugar stocks against loans.

The petitioner’s counsel Advocate Azhar Siddique contended that sugar was being sold at exorbitant prices and a mafia had made the life of people ‘miserable’.

He said the sugar mafia had created artificial shortage of the commodity to sell it at high rates.

The counsel prayed to the court to summon the record of sale and storage of sugar.

“Price control magistrates completely failed to control the price hike and the shortage emerged owing to flawed polices of the government,” he asserted.

Siddique argued that the shortage of flour and sugar could be overcome if the government stopped their export.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2020.