To meet demand in Ramazan: LHC provisionally allows Punjab govt to enforce sugar price at Rs80/kg

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court Wednesday provisionally allowed the Punjab government to enforce the ex-mill price of sugar at Rs80/kg to meet the demand of the commodity during the upcoming month of Ramazan. Before passing the order, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan gave two opportunities to the sugar mills and the government to resolve the matter amicably. The mills agreed to sell sugar at Rs83/kg to the government, the dialogue remained unfruitful. Tandlianwala Sugar Mills and others had challenged the government’s decision to fix the ex-mill price for sugar at Rs80/kg.

Opposing the petitions, a government’s law officer said there was 2.5 million tons sugar in stock of the mills whereas the demand during the month of Ramazan would be around 155000 tons. The judge observed that there should no shortage of sugar during the holy month. He allowed the government to buy sugar from the mills at Rs80 per kg to meet the demand in Ramazan. The judge deferred hearing of the petitions for a date to be fixed after Eidul Fitr. Earlier, the judge had suspended the impugned notification of the ex-mill price.

The counsel for the mills had argued that the government damaged the reputation of the petitioners by levelling false allegations of hoarding the sugar. They said the industries department deputed its officials in the mills to enforce the ex-mill price of sugar. They argued that the government could not enforce its prices on the mills. They asked the court to set aside the impugned notification about fixing prices of the commodity.