SC suspends SHC decision of nullifying sugar commission report
Sindh High Court had declared report of Sugar Inquiry Commission null and void
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday suspended Sindh High Court’s decision of nullifying the sugar inquiry commission’s report.
A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan heard the petition of federal government against order of Sindh High Court.
Earlier, federal government challenged the SHC verdict of August 17 in the top court, stating that the notification of the sugar commission was issued as per the inquiry commission law.
Sindh High Court had declared report of Sugar Inquiry Commission null and void. SHC, while accepting plea of owners of sugar mills, 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 Supreme Court (SC) to challenge order of Sindh High Court (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.
