SHC brushes aside sugar commission report, orders fresh probe

Ag Sabah

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday declared the Sugar Inquiry Commission report null and void and directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to launch a fresh investigation into increase in sugar prices in the country.

A division bench comprising Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Omar Sial issued the verdict on a petition filed by more than 20 sugar mill owners on the government-led commission on sugar price hike earlier this year.

The court also directed the FBR, the FIA and the NAB to include people in the investigation having knowledge about the sugar industry. The bench urged the institutions to find out if anyone was given illegal or unjust subsidy.

The court asked the NAB, the FIA and the FBR to carry out fresh investigations as per the law. The court ordered the NAB to carry out an independent investigation in line with the NAB Ordinance. If any government official had misused his powers, they should be investigated, the court observed. The court asked the FBR to probe the matter according to the country’s tax laws. The court ordered: “FIA should also ignore the sugar inquiry commission report and re-investigate [the increase in prices].” The court also issued the same orders to the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Seniors lawyer Makhdoom Ali Khan Advocate, Barrister Abdul Sattar Pirzad and other lawyers appeared before the court on behalf 20 mill owners.Listing eight reasons for setting aside the report, the SHC stated the sugar commission failed to follow the rules of the business. It further observed the commission failed to gazette the notification in due time.

The court further observed the commission had an incomplete composition and also denied the petitioners the opportunity of being heard. The high court also pointed out the prejudice of the commission report stating it violated Article 4 10 (A) and 25 of the Constitution and also interfered in the relevant schemes of law.

The court has also stopped all the federal government authorities from taking any decision in pursuance of the report. The SHC directed the NAB to open an independent inquiry in the case under the NAB Ordinance without reference to the commission report.

It asked the FBR to also conduct an independent inquiry under the relevant laws to determine whether any illegality under the taxation laws was committed by any of the petitioners without reference to the report. It is pertinent to mention here that the Sugar inquiry commission had claimed sugar mills belonging to the families of the country’s top politicians, including PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif, PTI’s Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar and 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 prevent government action, mill owners approached the SHC which stopped the federal government from taking action against them. Later, the federal government approached the Supreme Court (SC) to challenge the SHC order. The top court dismissed the stay order granted by the SHC and allowed the government to take action against sugar mills. The apex court granted three weeks’ time to the SHC to issue verdict over the matter.

The SC also directed the government to not take unnecessary steps against sugar millers. On May 30, the federal government had made public a report of Sugar Inquiry Commission.