The Punjab Government should not allow establishment of sugar mills in cotton zone otherwise it would have bad effects on cotton economy, which earns billions of dollars through exports of textiles.
In their letter to Punjab Chief Minister chief executives of two more sugar mills - Sheikhoo Sugar Mill and Fatima Sugar Mill - have drawn his attention towards this crucial issue and said that CM should take a straight stance on this issue and not to let Federal Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar to establish a new sugar mill in Muzaffargarh district despite a ban.
Chief executives, Sheikhoo Sugar Mill, Anis Ahmed Sheikh and Fatima Sugar Mill's Fawad Ahmed Mukhtar, real brother of PML Multan City District Nazim, Mian Faisal Mukhtar.
Both the chief executives have said that sugar industry was already passing through its worst economic crises in the history due to excess installed capacity of mills in the country, while sugarcane crop was also decreasing continuously for want of water and competition with better rewarding crops for farmers.
They said that the Punjab government had already imposed a ban on the construction of new sugar mills in Muzaffargarh vied order No AEA-111-3-9/91 dated April 1, 2004, keeping in view the water scarcity in the country and to protect other important cash crops such as wheat and cotton.
With the current installed capacity, the sugar mills can produce 5.5 million tons sugar whereas the production with the current crop will not exceed 2.5 million tons, they said.
They further said that there were currently two sugar mills in Muzaffargarh, operating for the last 12 years and both were receiving 60 percent sugarcane of their installed capacity from the district. The rest of 40 percent was being brought from far-flung areas of Bhakkar and Dera Ismail Khan, bearing additional expenses due to lack of availability of enough sugarcane in Muzaffargarh, they added.
"The new sugar mills were not economically viable and will seriously affect the economic viability of existing two sugar mills. They will destroy the current sowing pattern between sugarcane and cotton in the district," they said.
They had also sent the copies of their letter to the presidents of National Bank of Pakistan, HBL, MCB, ABL, Askari Bank Limited, Bank Al-Falah Limited, Faysal Bank Limited and Bank of Punjab to stop any sort of loaning in the name of sugar mills establishment during the ban. They had requested the CM to ensure the strict compliance of the ban through the concerned departments.
Earlier, Layyah Sugar Mill filed a petition with the LHC Multan bench against the establishment of the mill, which was adjourned on July 24 for September 4. Justice Khalid Alvi of the LHC Multan bench directed the law office to ensure that the report and para-wise comments as directed vied order dated July 3, 2006 are filed at least 10 days before the next hearing date.
Talking to this scribe on phone from Islamabad, PML senator, Haroon Akhtar Khan said, "Layyah Sugar Mills sponsors Shamim Khan and Imran Khan were the main financiers of former premier Mian Nawaz Sharif. They had filed a petition against me to reduce the pressure of my petition against the construction of a sugar mill in the name of Al-Moiz Sugar Mill in violation of rules and regulations in Dera Ismail Khan."
He said that they were deliberately making the matter political. "The mill's NOC had been obtained through a directive issued by the NWFP chief minister. This was blatant violation of laws as the NOC should had been issued by the NWFP secretary industries that had the powers to issue it based on the consultation of the agriculture ministry."
He said that the NWFP chief minister had directed the secretary industries to issue the NOC to Al-Moiz Sugar Mill on May 16, 2005 and it was issued the same day. He said a notification issued by the NWFP agriculture ministry on May 24, 2005 stated that a detailed report had to be made to study the viability of a sugar mill in DI Khan. "No detailed report was prepared, no analysis was done and the NOC was obtained in a matter of hours on the directive of the NWFP chief minister," he added.
The senator said that the Tandlianwala Sugar Mill had filed a writ petition with the Peshawar High Court against this blatant violation of the law.
Justifying the establishment of his sugar mill in Muzaffargarh, he said that the power to impose or lift a ban or to add or subtract areas to set up any industry in Punjab came from Clause 3 of the West Pakistan Ordinance 1963. "This power can only be exercised through a gazette notification issued by the Punjab governor. The notification was issued on July 15, 2005 that allowed the setting up of sugar mills up to a capacity of 16,000 tons per day. The notification had not been amended since then," he maintained.
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