LAHORE: A division bench of Lahore High Court on Wednesday postponed until May 24 the hearing of petition challenging shifting of Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills in Muzaffargarh, Ittefaq Sugar Mills and Chaudhry Sugar Mills in Rahim Yar Khan, believed to be owned by the Sharif family.
The bench directed the CEOs of Ittefaq and Chaudhry Sugar mills to submit reply until next hearing.
On April 26, the bench issued contempt of court notices to the CEOs of the three sugar mills for carrying out sugar crushing in defiance of stay.
The bench had issued the notices after Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, counsel of PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, alleged that the sugar mills ignored the stay order and continued sugar crushing and other activities. He also submitted documentary evidence in support of his argument for violation of the stay order.
The bench was hearing intra-court appeals moved by administration of the mills challenging a single bench that had set aside their shifting of these three mills to new districts of southern Punjab.
Tareen’s JDW Sugar Mills had assailed the relocation of the Sharifs mills before the single bench. However, a two-member bench later suspended the decision.
The petitioners then approached the Supreme Court against that order.
The court had remanded the case to the LHC with direction to decide the appeals of the mills.
Before a single bench, the petitioner’s counsel had said that the secretary industries issued the impugned notifications on December 4, 2015 with mala fide intention to facilitate the desired relocation of these sugar mills. He said under Section 3 of Punjab Industries (Control on Establishment and Enlargement) Ordinance, there was a restriction on establishment of industrial undertaking without provincial government’s permission.
He had submitted that under this section, various notifications had been issued imposing restriction on establishing new sugar mills in the province. He had pleaded that it was the government’s consistent position that relocation amounts to establishing of a new industrial undertaking.
