Formation of sugar inquiry body legal: IHC

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday dismissed an intra-court appeal of Sugar Mills Association against formation of sugar inquiry commission by the federal government.

A divisional bench comprising of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Lubna Pervaiz announced the judgment, which was reserved on last hearing after concluding arguments from the both sides. The bench maintained the decision of single member bench verdict and declared the inquiry commission and its report as legal.

The order stated the commission's formation could not be dismissed on the basis of just minor technical errors and allowed the investigation institutions to continue its work against responsible of sugar crisis in light of the commission report.

It may be mentioned here that the Sugar Mills Association had challenged the single member bench's decision in sugar commission case. It stated that there were some technical faults in formation of the commission and prayed the court to turn it down. However, the attorney general adopted the stance that these were just minor errors which had no impacts on performance of inquiry commission and prayed the court to dismiss the case.

Earlier, a single member bench comprising the IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had already declared the commission as legal and rejected the sugar mills petition.