The Lahore High Court Multan Bench on Monday took up the matter of illegal construction of Tandlianwala Sugar Mills, Unit No 3 being constructed at Mauza Ali Wala Tehsil and District Muzaffargarh owned by Federal Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar according to the petition filed by an affected petitioner sugar mills.
The government of Punjab was represented by the Assistant Advocate General, Muhammad Qasim Khan and the petitioner was represented by Dr Pervez Hassan and Muhammad Zakaullah.
The court took notice of non-filing of para wise comments by the Secretaries of Industry, Agriculture and Environment of the government of the Punjab and positively directed them to file their comments ten days before the next date of hearing, which was fixed as the September 4-2006.
The petitioner has alleged that despite the ban imposed by the government of Punjab for setting up of new sugar mills, the Respondents No 11, Tandlianwala Sugar Mills is continuing their construction defying the said ban. The court also put on notice the Allied Bank led consortium that is purportedly financing this illegal project running into Rs 1000 million.
Importantly, the project is blatantly violating the environmental laws of Pakistan which require a prior environmental impact assessment and public participation before the requisite N.O.C. indiscriminate establishment of sugar mills will lead to sugar cane price war between various mills to the detriment of the consumers. The present sugar crises is a reflection of such unauthorised illegal activities.
The petitioner further submitted that licence of this sugar mills was obtained for Tandlianwala (Faisalabad) district which is out of cotton zone but it was being established in cotton zone with the connivance of concerned departments and ministries.