LHC withdraws stay order against sugarcane crushing season start

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday withdrew a stay order against the start of the sugarcane crushing season in Punjab.

The court had earlier stayed the operation of a notification by the Punjab Food department for the start of the sugarcane crushing season in Punjab from November 10 on petitions filed by 22 sugar mills.

Justice Ayesha A Malik passed the orders on a civil miscellaneous application filed by the Punjab government against the stay order.

A provincial law officer argued before the court that the prices of sugar were rising due to stay order whereas the mills were also not making payments to the farmers. He pleaded with the court to withdraw the stay order.

At this, the court withdrew the stay order and adjourned hearing of the main petitions.

The petitioner-mills including Adam Jee Sugar Mills, Hamza Sugar mills, through their petitions had argued that the Punjab Food department had issued a notification with regard to start of crushing season 2020-21 by virtue of which mills situated in the southern part of the province would commence crushing from November 10 while mills in rest of the Punjab would begin crushing of cane from November 15, 2020.

They stated that the sugarcane crop would mature by the end of November and if the crushing season was started earlier then it would cause loss to the growers and millers as less quantity of sugar would be obtained from the crop.

The court was requested to suspend operation of the notification till the final decision on the petition and issue directions for the start of crushing season after November 30.