Sugar mills get stay against CCP notices

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday suspended the operation of the notices issued by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to sugar mills for alleged manipulation of price of the commodity through cartelization.

Justice Ayesha A Malik passed the stay order on petitions of eight mills including the JDW Sugar Mills of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s estranged leader Jahangir Khan Tareen. On behalf of the mills, Advocate Shehzad Elahi argued that a four-member bench of the CCP was equally divided on the question of alleged cartelization by the sugar mills and there was no consensus decision.

However, he said, the CCP chairman exercised his casting vote and turned the decision into majority leading to imposition of penalty on the mills. The counsel argued that the act of the commission’s chairman was in sheer violation of the law.

He said the proceedings before the CCP bench were quasi judicial in nature and the chairman could not use his casting vote to change its decision.

The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned notices for being unlawful and unconstitutional. The judge suspended the operations of the impugned notices and sought replies from the respondents by November 30. Justice Jawad Hassan of the LHC also passed a similar stay order on a set of petitions filed by the Hunza Sugar Mills and others.