Commission’s report on sugar mills: SC to take up govt’s appeal against SHC judgment tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will take up the federal government’s appeal against the Sindh High Court judgment Monday (June 7).

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, on September 2nd, had allowed the federal government appeal and suspended the SHC judgment against the inquiry commission report on sugar mills.

The court had also issued notices to the sugar mills owners.

The SHC on 17-08-2020 had quashed the fact-finding report and the notifications constituting the Commission of Inquiry.

The federation, on August 27, had filed an appeal praying to suspend the SHC judgment.

According to the appeal, the SHC upheld the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) contention purely on technical grounds that the summary for constituting the Commission was initiated by Interior rather than Cabinet Division and that the notifications were belatedly published in the official gazette.

The federation submitted that the SHC judgment made observations about the appointment and role of Advisor/SAPM [Shehzad Mirza], despite the fact that this was neither the issue directly nor argued in detail before the court.

The findings in the impugned judgment are contrary to the facts and of the law as well as the Constitution.

The SHC, apart from declaring the report null and void, had also directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to launch a fresh investigation into the matter.

The court had directed the FBR, the FIA, and the NAB to include people “who knew the sugar industry” in their investigation, and directed the institutions to carry out a fresh investigation as per the law.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC), on 18th August 2020, had turned down the PSMA’s Intra-Court Appeal challenging an IHC single bench’s verdict.

The single bench of Chief Justice Athar Minallah on June 20, 2020, had dismissed the PSMA petition against the report of the Sugar Inquiry Commission (SIC).

The bench, however, expressed dismay over the scant regard that the public functionaries in the Interior Division as well as the Cabinet Division have for their responsibilities under the Rules of Business and the 2017 Act, and for not having published the notifications constituting the Inquiry Commission in the official gazette soon after the decisions were taken by the Cabinet to constitute the Inquiry Commission.

Regarding not moving of summary by the Cabinet Division, the IHC said under Article 199 of the Constitution, the High Court intervenes where justice, equity and good conscience require such intervention.

It is with these principles in mind that we have refrained from invalidating the decision of the Cabinet to constitute an Inquiry Commission, on the ground that the summary for the Cabinet was moved by the [Interior] Ministry in whose domain the subject of the 2017 Act did not lay.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021