Mill owners not selling sugar at Rs70 per kg, IHC told.

ISLAMABAD -- The federal government on Monday informed the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that sugar mills were not complying with the condition of selling the commodity at Rs70 per kg to non-commercial consumers, hence, proceedings against them as recommended by the inquiry commission could not be stayed.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah on June 11 granted stay order against the recommendation of the inquiry commission on sugar scam that urged registration of criminal cases against sugar mill owners on the condition that they would supply the commodity to the common man at the rate of Rs70 per kg till June 25.

The petitioners included the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), sugar mills owned by Jahangir Khan Tareen and his son Ali Khan Tareen, Suleman Shahbaz Sharif, the son of opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, Makhdoom Omer Shehryar, brother of federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Sardar Ali Raza Khan Dreshak and others.

According to the report of the commission, Pakistan exported more than four million tonnes of sugar over the past five years and more than Rs29 billion had been given to sugar mills in terms of export subsidy.

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