Sugar inquiry commission: SC to take up govt petition against SHC decision tomorrow

Supreme Court will take up federal government’s petition against the Sindh High Court (SHC) judgment deeming the sugar commission and its report unlawful.

A three-judge special bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed will hear the federal government pension tomorrow (Wednesday).

Last week Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Javed Khan, on behalf of the federal government, filed a petition against the ruling on August 17, saying that the SHC quashed the fact-finding report as well as the notifications for the inquiry commission under the Pakistan Commissions of Inquiry Act, 2017.

The government’s petition added that SHC quashed the fact-finding report and the notifications on technical grounds, as that the summary for constituting the commission was initiated by interior ministry rather than the Cabinet Division and the notifications were published belatedly in the official gazette.

This was despite the fact that the summary for appointing all seven members of the commission was duly approved by the federal cabinet and none of the sugar manufacturers, including the respondents ever did or could claim lack of knowledge of the proceedings of the commission, which also fully interacted with the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) of which the respondent manufacturers were members, nor could they show any prejudice whatsoever owing to the fact that the summary was initiated by Interior Division, which in any case merged in the final approval of the cabinet, nor due to any delay in publication of notification in the gazette, the petition said.

“It is submitted with profound respect and humility that the bench grossly erred in law and facts and based the judgment on completely unjustified assumption that the aggrieved party in this case is the group of manufacturers of sugar,” the petition said.

“The glaring yet completely ignored reality is that the real and truly aggrieved party in this matter are millions of captive consumers who are being grossly overcharged the price of an essential commodity ie sugar by a cartel of sugar manufacturers acting in concert and completely dominating the market,” it said.

“Besides those consumers, there are thousands of poor growers of sugarcane who are also the aggrieved party as they have been consistently denied adequate payments for the sugarcane grown by them with their untiring efforts,” it added