ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the temporary reopening of the three sugar mills owned by the Sharif family during the hearing of petitions filed by farmers for the reopening of the three mills.
The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar took the decision after the failure of a settlement between sugar mills owners and workers.
Earlier on Monday, CJP said that the sugar mills owned by the Sharif family in South Punjab will not open “come what may”.
The SC on Monday rejected the petitions filed by growers for the reopening of three relocated sugar mills namely Chaudhry Sugar Mills to Rahim Yar Khan, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills to Muzaffargarh and Ittefaq Sugar Mills to Bahawalpur.
Farmers approached the apex court to allow crushing of sugarcane for the current season after the Lahore High Court (LHC) had declared the relocation illegal and ordered that the owners of the mills return them to their previous locations within three months, having observed that the Sharif family had illegally relocated the mills.
The order came in a case filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Jahangir Tareen, where he challenged the relocation.
In their petition, the farmers said that the season’s crop will be wasted if the mills are not allowed to operate. However, the top court had turned down their request and directed owners of five other sugar mills to buy the crop instead.
The five sugar mills owners, including Tareen, had given undertaking that they would lift all the sugarcane from three districts at the price of Rs180 per 40kg. However, dissatisfied with the arrangement, the growers pointed out that the mills do not have the capacity to crush the amount of sugarcane in the area.