Islamabad High Court accepts sugar mills owners’ intra-court appeal

Rejects request to stop govt from taking action on basis of inquiry commission’s reports

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday accepted for hearing an intra-court appeal (ICA) filed by sugar mills owners against a single bench’s order on a sugar inquiry commission but rejected the petitioners’ request to stay any governmental action started on basis of the commission’s reports.

An IHC single bench comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah on June 20 dismissed a petition challenging constitution of the inquiry commission formed earlier this year to probe into a sugar crisis as well as its two reports and allowed the government to start a crackdown against sugar barons.

Sugar mills owners later moved the intra-court appeal, requesting the IHC to set aside its June 20 order and reiterating claim that the commission and its reports have no legal worth. 

An IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb on Friday took up the appeal and later declared it “maintainable” in a written order.

The bench also served notices to Ministry of Interior, inquiry commission members, the federation, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and other respondents to seek their comments on the matter.

The sugar inquiry commission – led by the FIA chief – was formed to probe into a sudden shortage of sugar that resulted in a steep hike in its prices in January this year.

In its preliminary report – unveiled on April 5 – the commission had claimed that sugar mills belonging to the country’s top politicians including PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif’s, PTI’s Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar and PML-Q’s Moonis Elahi were among the beneficiaries of the crisis.

In its forensic report – issued on May 21 – the commission had accused the sugar mill owners of earning illegal profits to the tune of billions of rupees through unjustified price hikes, benami transactions, tax evasion, misuse of subsidy and purchasing sugarcane off the books.

The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) had challenged the commission and its reports in the IHC which on June 12 stopped the government from taking action against sugar mills. However, on June 20 the IHC single bench declared that the commission is legal and dismissed the PSMA petition.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) restrained the federal authorities on June 24 from taking action against around 20 sugar mills of Sindh on basis of the reports.

The federal government on June 29 challenged the SHC interim order in the apex court which on July 2 did not suspend the SHC order and adjourned the case till July 14. Now a three-judge bench will hear the government appeal against the high court’s order.