The Lahore High Court Thursday adjourned to May 24 the hearing of the petitions of sugarcane growers seeking payments from various banks for further arguments. Petitioner Nishat and others stated that they supplied sugarcane to Brother Sugar Mill in 2013 but the sugar mills had not been paying them their dues. They said the mills produced the sugar and took loan from the banks by giving the sugar-stocks as mortgage to the banks in order to avoid payments to farmers. Now, the farmers said, the banks are claiming that sugar has no market demand, so they could not pay them till the sale of the sugar stocks.
A law officer said that no doubt the banks have their right to claim but the right of farmers is superior and prevailed in this situation. The law officer stated Cane Commissioner has powers to sale such stocks of sugar for the payments to the farmers. He said the superior courts have also declared such powers of the cane commissioner as lawful.