ISLAMABAD - Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered to de-seal three sugar mills of Sharif family in the South Punjab.

It was a big relief for the sugarcane growers in the vicinity whose crop was decaying due to late purchase by five other mills.

A three-member bench led by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar passed the order while resuming the hearing of the Pakistan Kissan Ittehad petitions. They have demanded reopening of Sharif three relocated sugar mills – Chaudhry Sugar Mills to Rahim Yar Khan, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills to Muzaffargarh and Ittefaq Sugar Mills to Bahawalpur.

They have challenged the Lahore High Court verdict in the apex court. The LHC in September last year declared the relocation of Sharif family’s mills to southern Punjab illegal.

On January 11 submitting the undertaking, the owners of five sugar mills of South Punjab, including JDW Sugar Mills of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Jahangir Khan Tareen, assured the apex court that they would purchase the entire sugarcane crop against provincial government’s fixed rate at Rs180 per 40kg.

The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad and others again invoked the apex court jurisdiction claiming that the five sugar mills failed to fulfill the commitment to which the bench asked the Cane Commissioner Punjab and five sugar mills representative to submit a comprehensive plan for purchase of sugarcane crop from the South Punjab growers by February 21.

In pursuance of the court directives, Cane Commissioner Punjab and representative failed to reach any settlement and on Wednesday Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar temporarily allowed the three banned sugar mills including Chaudhry Sugar Mills, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills and Ittifaq Sugar Mills, to start their operations for the current season.

The chief justice said in his order that no party reached any settlement and failed to provide any cogent reason except citing the Lahore High Court decision of September 2017 which had declared the relocations of Sharif’s family three sugar mills to South Punjab as illegal.

Justice Saqib said the best interest of farmers is the pre-dominant factor and allowing to reopen the three mills with directives to keep specific account.

Besides, the court discharged undertaking which five sugar mills including JDW Sugar Mills, Hamza Sugar Mill, Indus Sugar Mill, RYK Sugar Mill and Ashraf Sugar mill submitted earlier before the court to procure the crop at the rates set by Punjab government.