ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will take up the federation's appeal against the Sindh High Court judgment on the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association's petitions against the Commission of Inquiry report Wednesday (Sept 2).
The SHC on 17-08-2020 had quashed the fact-finding report and the notifications constituting the Commission of Inquiry. Attorney General for Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan on August 27 had filed an appeal praying to suspend the SHC judgment.
According to the appeal, the SHC upheld the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) contention purely on technical grounds that the summary for constituting the commission was initiated by interior rather than the Cabinet Division, and that the notifications were belatedly published in the official gazette.
The federation contended that the SHC grossly erred in law and facts, and based the impugned judgment on completely unjustified assumption that the aggrieved party in this case is the group of manufacturers of sugar.
It stated the aggrieved party in this matter is millions of consumers who are being grossly overcharged the price of an essential commodity i.e. sugar by a cartel of sugar manufacturers. The public at large also suffers billions of rupees in evaded taxes owing to under-reporting of the actual production by the manufacturers.
The appeal said in order to redress the public grievances, the federal government constituted the inquiry commission under the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act, 2017, to unravel the true facts and expose the inner working of this industry.
The federation submitted that the SHC judgment made observations about the appointment and role of advisor/SAPM [Shehzad Mirza] despite the fact that this was neither the issue directly nor argued in detail before the court. The findings in the impugned judgment are contrary to the facts and of the law as well as the Constitution.
The impugned judgment of the SHC is contrary to the settled principles of law as well as principles of equity and is liable to be set aside by the apex court. It said that the subsequent addition of a member in the Commission after the approval by the Cabinet vide notification dated 25-03-20 did not violate the provision of Pakistan Commission of Inquiry Act, 2017.
The commission report is merely a fact-finding exercise and cannot be set aside on basis of apprehension of the respondents against who no final determination of rights or liabilities has been made in the report nor any action taken as such.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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