LHC suspends food dept’s notification

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday stayed a food department’s notification about the start of crushing season 2020-21 for the sugar mills in Punjab.

As per the notification, the mills situated in southern part of Punjab were required to commence crushing from Nov 10 while mills in rest of the province from Nov 15. Several mills filed petitions challenging the notification.

A counsel pleaded that the schedule announced by the government would badly affect the production of sugar. He said the law restricted the government from starting the crushing season every year before the last week of November.

He asked the court to set aside the notification for being illegal. After hearing initial arguments, Justice Ayesha A Malik suspended the impugned notification and sought replies from the respondents by Nov 10.