Sugar mill’s request for crushing rejected

LAHORE

A Lahore High Court division bench on Monday declined a request of Chaudhry Sugar Mills’ counsel to allow crushing at the mills and adjourned the hearing of a case of shifting of three sugar mills of the ruling family.

Advocate Ali Sibtain Fazli stated before the bench that the matter of the Chaudhry Sugar Mills was not identical to other two mills, so they should be allowed to start crushing. The other two mills are Haseeb Waqas and Ittefaq. However, the bench, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, did not entertain the request and put off hearing until Tuesday (today) for further arguments of Advocate Khwaja Harris on behalf of the Punjab government.

The bench also sought a fresh report from the Muzaffargarh sessions judge of compliance of a Supreme Court stay order by Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills. JDW Sugar Mills of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Secretary General Jahangir Tareen and other mills had challenged the shifting of the mills belonged to the Sharif family. However, a division bench had suspended the single bench decision. JDW Sugar Mills had approached the Supreme Court against that order and the court suspending cane-crushing at the three sugar mills -Chaudhry Sugar Mills (R.Y. Khan), Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills (Muzaffargarh) and Ittefaq Sugar Mills (Bahawalpur)- and remanded the matter to the LHC with a direction to decide the pending appeals.