Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered to reopen three sealed sugar mills of Sharif family in South Punjab to solace the sugarcane growers in the vicinity whose crop was decaying due to late purchase by five other mills. A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar passed the orders while resuming the hearing of a plea filed by Pakistan Kissan Ittehad, seeking reopening of relocated mills of Sharif family including Chaudhry Sugar Mills to Rahim Yar Khan, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills to Muzaffargarh and Ittifaq Sugar Mills to Bahawalpur.
On January 11, submitting undertaking, the owners of five sugar mills of South Punjab, including JDW Sugar Mills of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jahangir Khan Tareen, assured the apex court that they would purchase the entire sugarcane crop against provincial government's fixed rate at Rs 180 per 40kg. Pakistan Kissan Ittehad and others again invoked the apex court jurisdiction claiming that the five sugar mills failed to fulfill commitment to which the bench asked Cane Commissioner Punjab and five sugar mills representative to submit a comprehensive plan for purchase of sugarcane crop from South Punjab growers by February 21.
In pursuance of the court directives, Cane Commissioner Punjab and representative failed to reach any settlement to which on Wednesday, the Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar temporarily allowed three banned sugar mills including Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills and Ittifaq Sugar Mills, to start their operations for the current season.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said, in his order that no party reached any settlement and failed to provide any cogent reason except citing Lahore High Court decision of September 2017 which had declared the relocations of Sharif's family three sugar mills to South Punjab as illegal.
Chief Justice Nisar said that primarily in the best interest of farmers, the court is allowing to reopen the three mills with directives to keep specific account. Besides, the court discharged undertaking which five sugar mills including JDW Sugar Mills, Hamza Sugar Mill, Indus Sugar Mill, RYK Sugar Mill and Ashraf Sugar mill submitted earlier before the court to procure the crop at the rates set by Punjab government.
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