Supreme Court of Pakistan refuses stay on Rs 40/kg sugar rate
September 24, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Pakistan News
ISLAMABAD Pakistan: Supreme Court of Pakistan has refused to grant stay on Lahore High Court’s verdict of fixing sugar price at Rs 40 per kg, reports www.trendpk.com .
However, the court accepted the pleas by the federal and provincial governments of Sindh, Punjab and NWFP to be the parties in the petitions filed by the Punjab Sugar Dealers Association, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, Makkah Sugar Mills (Pvt) Ltd, Sheikhoo Sugar Mills (Pvt) Ltd and one Abdul Quddus Malik.
The two-member bench of the Supreme Court – comprises of Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, resumed Thursday the hearing of identical petitions seeking suspension of LHC’s suo motu order of Sept 3 of fixing the sweetener rate at Rs 40 per kg.
The State Bank’s deputy governor, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman and chief secretaries of all four provinces appeared before the bench on court notice.
Deputy Governor SBP informed the court that sugar mills owners’ were in debt of worth Rs 21 billion of various commercial banks of the country.
A report on the investigations into 2006 sugar crisis prepared by the NAB at that time was also presented before the honorable bench which revealed that most of the sugar mills were owned by the key politicians of the country, charging them of creating sugar crisis of 2006 by hoarding the commodity illegally.
CJ Chaudhry during the hearing refused to grant stay on LHC’s verdict, saying that it would be inappropriate to grant any relief at this point of time. He observed that the court is not suspending the sugar rate of Rs 40 per kg and it will remain effective throughout the country.
Rejecting the pleaders’ stance that the crushing of sugar is being hampered by LHC’s verdict that would further dampen the crisis, the CJ observed that no one was restricting the sugar mill owners of crushing the sugarcanes.
The bench ordered the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to present its report on current sugar crisis on the next hearing set to be held on Oct 1 and adjourned the case till then.
Supreme Court of Pakistan refuses stay on Rs 40/kg sugar rate was first posted on September 24, 2009 at 4:39 pm.
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