SHC stay order vacated: Govt can go after sugar millers, says SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday vacated the stay order of the Sindh High Court (SHC) that had suspended the operation of an Inquiry Commission report to the extent of 12 sugar mills.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the petition of the federal government praying for granting leave to appeal against the order dated 23.06.2020 passed by the Sindh High Court, suspending the operation of the Inquiry Commission report to the extent of 12 sugar mills’ owners. The court directed high courts to decide the cases of sugar mills within a period of three weeks during which no unnecessary coercive action may be taken against the sugar mills.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan said all works should be transparent so that the guilty should be sentenced. He said people’s interest could not be ignored on the basis of technical matters.

The chief justice said how they could interfere in politics and stop the government from working.

On July 2, the court had rejected the plea of federal government seeking suspension of the order of the Sindh High Court that had halted the operation of the recommendations of the Inquiry Commission report on sugar. The Sindh High Court had halted the operation of the Inquiry Commission report to the extent of 12 sugar mills. The federal government, however, through the office of the attorney general of Pakistan, had moved the apex court, praying to grant leave to appeal.

The Supreme Court had rejected the plea of the federal government and referred the matter to a three-member bench with the observation that the instant matter will be decided on merit and adjourned further hearing until July 14.

On Tuesday, the court recalled the stay and directed both the Sindh High Court and the Islamabad High Court to decide legal proceedings pending before the respective courts pertaining to challenge of the Sugar Inquiry Commission within a period of three weeks.

Makhdoom Ali Khan represented the sugar mills based in Sindh and Attorney General Khalid Javed appeared before the court and argued. The court declined the request of the attorney general of Pakistan that the case should be heard on merit by the Supreme Court itself as it was of the view that in the first instance, the high courts should adjudicate upon the merits of the case first.

Upon a query of the court on the fate of the interim order, the counsel for the sugar mills informed the court that action was being apprehended on the basis of the commission’s report. However, AGP Khalid Javed gave a voluntary undertaking that no unnecessary coercive action would be taken against the sugar mills. On the basis of this statement, the court was pleased to pass accordingly and recalled the stay order of the Sindh High Court.

It is pertinent to mention here that to probe the increase in sugar prices, the federal government had formed the Inquiry Committee which had collected information from the federal and provincial governments as well as Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) and other stakeholders.

The commission on April 5 while submitting its report had claimed that sugar mills belonging to top politicians including PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif, PTI’s Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar and PML-Q’s Moonis Elahi were among the beneficiaries of the crisis.

The attorney general of Pakistan the other day while submitting his synopses to the Supreme Court in the instant matter had submitted that the constitution of a commission to probe increase in sugar prices was lawful. He had contended the sugar mills seek to prevent federal and provincial governments as well as statutory bodies from performing their duties.

The AG informed the court the Inquiry Commission carried out the probe and submitted a detailed report about the working of the sugar industry while also disclosing potential violations of different laws resulting in huge loss of public revenue which warrants appropriate legal actions and proceedings against persons responsible under different statutes.