LAHORE - A commission was formed to probe allegation that Al Moiz Industries Unit-II setup a sugar mills illegally in Piplan, Mianwali and it would submit its report to Industries, Commerce and Investment (IC&I) secretary within two weeks.
Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills (Pvt) Ltd had filed a petition in the IC&I department against alleged illegal establishment of a sugar mill by Al Moiz Industries (Unit-II Mianwali).
The matter is referred for inquiry to Industries, Prices, Weights and Measures, Punjab (IPWM) Punjab director general and the DG recommended an inquiry may be made regarding the commitment made by the accused sugar mills in the summary approved by the then chief minister.
The commission comprises Syed Muhammad Shifaat Zaidi from Karachi, Asif Ali Raza Sheikhupura, Muhammad Nawaz Cheema, Chief Inspector of Boilers, Directorate General Industries, Prices, Weights and Measures, Punjab, Lahore.
The commission will visit the premises of Al-Moiz industries (Unit-II) Piplan, Mianwali to perform the technical audit of the sugar mills. Terms of Reference (ToRs) of the commission, as per the documents would be, whether the plant is designed to simultaneously crush both sugarcane and sugar beet? Is it crushing beet if not when is it expected to start beet crushing?
Other terms include whether the plant is designed and built for power co-generation by using boilers, turbines, and generators operating on 65 bars or higher in accordance with the power industry standards, approximately three times more than the prevalent standards of 23 bars in the sugar industry?
Whether the plant is providing its surplus electricity to the National Grid or not? If so, what is the quantum of electricity it is adding to the grid? Whether the company fulfilled its commitment to invest $ 20 million to build aforesaid capacity and how much has actually been invested?
The commission will further peep into whether the plant pioneered in the province, technologies, such as diffuser instead of primary juice extraction mills, falling film evaporators instead of Robert evaporators and electric motors instead of steam-driven technologies for more efficient mechanical output in the production process.
Whether an additional invests of $ 15 million for aforesaid technologies was made? If no then, what was the exact quantum of investment? What is the approximate area of sugarcane/sugar beet cultivators reliant on the purchase by the mills? Since when the mill is operational and what is the average annual capacity/utilization of the mill? What is the approximate number of farmers who are reliant on the mills? Passbooks or permit holders? What benefits is the mill extending to farmers in the area? In the commission's opinion how much percentage of the commitments has the unit fulfilled based on its initial application to the government? In the commission opinion, how has the mill impacted the sugar in terms of pioneering technology, good practices? In the commission opinion, what is the readiness/capability of the all of its commitments? In the commission's opinion are there any genuine reasons for commitments not delivered? And delays in installation/production?
The Supreme Court (SC) a couple of days ago reportedly had refused to issue a stay order against the Lahore High Court's (LHC) order of relocating three sugar mills including the Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills.
However, the apex court accepted for hearing the sugar mills plea against the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision ordering the shifting of their sugar units out of the South Punjab. The Punjab government in 2006 had banned the establishment of new ones and expansion of existing mills and the relocation of mills was also fallen in the policy.
However in 2015, the Punjab government had amended the notification and allowed relocation which was closely followed by the relocation of Chaudhry Sugar Mills to Rahim Yar Khan, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills to Muzaffargarh and Ittefaq Sugar Mills to Bahawalpur districts.
In 2016, Jahangir Tareen challenged the relocation of mills in the LHC by the Punjab government to facilitate some sugar units.
In September 2017, the LHC ordered the respective owners to shift their mills to their previous locations within three months.