SHC suspends operation of sugar commission report to extent of Sindh mill owners

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday suspended the operation on Sugar Inquiry Commission report to the extent of as many as 20 sugar mills owners in Sindh.

The interim order came on the petition of Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills and others, which sought quashment of the Sugar Commission Inquiry report.

The petitioners’ counsel submitted that the commission was not properly constituted in accordance with the relevant legislation. Besides, the commission included members who were biased and had already made up their minds against the sugar mills as they were members of the earlier inquiry committee constituted for the same purpose.

They submitted during the entire inquiry commission exercise, none of the petitioners were asked for information or clarification regarding the operation and business of their respective sugar mills while the sugar commission made observations against the petitioners, which has had an adverse impact on the businesses and reputation of the petitioners.

The SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Omar Sial, inquired the counsel as to how the matter fell within the writ jurisdiction of the SHC as no concrete action had been taken by any department against the petitioners. The counsel submitted that a perception had been created that all sugar mills are indulging in unlawful activities due to observations made in the inquiry report and ensuing media debates on the subject.

They submitted that such a perception had been detrimental to the petitioners’ business and in breach of the Article 14 of the Constitution. They further submitted that two sections of the inquiry report reflected that 10 mills were selected for audit out of which only nine were forensically audited whereas the section 2 of the inquiry report showed that it were only these nine sugar mills which had been forensically examined and these mills did not include the petitioners.

They submitted that the petitioners would also argue with regard to the legality of the letter written by Prime Minister’s Adviser Shahzad Akbar to the National Accountability Bureau when the matter was taken up for hearing. They sought interim relief and requested the court to suspend the inquiry report to the extent of the petitioners who had done nothing wrong and the inquiry report was detrimental to their business.

The court observed that points raised by the petitioners’ counsel required consideration; however, the court was also cognizant of the fact that sugar crises was a national issue and the same must be addressed in a short span of time.

The court issued notices to the federal government, the Federal Investigation Agency and others and called their comments on June 30. The court in the meantime suspended the operation of the Inquiry Commission Report to the extent of the petitioners till the next date of hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that the Sugar Inquiry Commission, which was constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan to probe and fix responsibility for the sugar shortage and price hike of the commodity in the country in the last couple of years, had revealed the names of a number of sugar mills owned by politicians and their relatives, including those belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, its allies as well as some members of the opposition parties i.e. Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pakistan People’s Party, which were responsible for the sugar crisis.

The commission, in its report, had accused the millers of earning illegal profits amounting to billions of rupees through unjustified price hikes, benami transactions, tax evasion, suspicious sugar export deals, illegal power production, misuse of subsidy and purchasing sugarcane off the books. The Islamabad High Court earlier had also dismissed the petition of the sugar mills association against the Sugar Inquiry Commission.