SHC verdict of nullifying sugar commission report challenged in SC
Last updated on: 27 August,2020 04:01 pm
The federation has filed a plea in the apex court against SHC verdict.
KARACHI (Dunya News) – The decision of Sindh High Court (SHC) regarding declaring the report submitted by sugar inquiry commission as null and void has been challenged in Supreme Court (SC) today (Thursday). According to details, the federation has filed a plea in the apex court against SHC verdict, stating that the notification of sugar commission was issued as per inquiry commission law. The government further requested the SC to annul the SHC decision.
Earlier, SHC, while accepting plea of owners of sugar mills, had ordered that government can launch inquiry against the mills but report of commission should not influence the investigation.
It is pertinent to mention here that Sugar inquiry commission had claimed that sugar mills belonging to the families of the country’s top politicians including PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif, PTI’s Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar, PML-Q’s Moonis Elahi and PPP’s Asif Ali Zardari were among the beneficiaries of the crisis.
In its forensic report – issued on May 21 – the commission had accused the sugar mill owners of earning illegal profits to the tune of billions of rupees through unjustified price hikes, benami transactions, tax evasion, misuse of subsidy and purchasing sugarcane off the books.
To stop government action, owners of the mills approached Sindh High Court, which stopped the federal government from taking actions against the sugar mills owners.
Later, federal government approached SC to challenge order of SHC. SC dismissed the stay order granted by the SHC and allowed the government to take action against sugar mills.
The top court granted three-week time to the SHC to issue verdict over the matter. The SC also directed the government to not take unnecessary steps against sugar millers.