ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered sugar mill owners to release all payments to farmers within five weeks.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, had summoned the owners of several sugar mills after receiving complaints of payment problems by sugarcane farmers.

High-profile sugar magnates, including Jahangir Tareen of the JDW Sugar Mills, Salman Shahbaz of the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Mian Amir Mehmood of the Gulf Sugar Mills, appeared before the court on Thursday.

One by one all the owners of the sugar mills came to the rostrum and were instructed by the apex court to make all payments within five weeks.

Mill owners warned of serious consequences if attempt is made to mislead court

The court also took notice of complaints made by several farmers that the sugar mills were not lifting sugarcane stock from the farmers despite earlier undertakings of doing so at the government rate of Rs180 per maund. The court warned the sugar mill owners that those who were attempting to mislead the court would have to face serious consequences.

The court restrained the sugar mills from making cash payments to farmers and asked them to make these through cheque or bank draft.

During the proceedings, the chief justice regretted that the country was destroyed not by any driver or clerk but by those who were at the helm of affairs.

Just over two months ago, on Feb 19, the apex court had ordered JDW Sugar Mills, Hamza Sugar Mills, Rahim Yar Khan Sugar Mills, Indus Sugar Mills and Ashraf Sugar Mills, as well as Cane Commissioner Sana­ullah and Rahim Yar Khan District Commissioner Suqrat Aman Rana to hold talks with sugarcane farmers and come up with a solution acceptable to all parties.

The court said that it was important to end the crisis and address the concerns of famers who were promised higher prices but were not getting them.

The situation was even more serious given the fact that the owners of the sugar mills had committed — before the Supreme Court — to purchasing sugarcane from farmers at the government-prescribed rate.

On Feb 21, the court had unsealed three sugar mills in south Punjab — Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills Ltd, Chaudhry Sugar Mills Ltd, and Ittefaq Sugar Mills — when the five operational sugar mills failed to reach an agreement to procure the existing stock of sugarcane from farmers at the government rate of Rs180 per maund.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018