KARACHI: A division bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday declared the constitution of the sugar inquiry commission to investigate the crisis of this commodity and its report illegal and ordered a fresh probe by directing National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to carryout separate and independent investigations into the crisis.
The division bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha and also comprising Justice Omar Sial reserved its judgment on the petitions filed by Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills and around 19 other mills in the province against the report of the inquiry commission and requested the court to quash it.
The petitioners had argued that the commission was not constituted in accordance with the relevant law and it included members who had already made up their minds against the sugar mills as they were also members of an earlier inquiry committee constituted for the same purpose.
According to the order of the court released here on Monday, SHC bench spelled out various reasons for quashing the report, including the "failure to follow mandatory rules of business" and "the failure to gazette the notification of the commission within due time".
The court ruled that the commission's constitution was "incomplete", "biased" and denied the petitioners the opportunity to be heard and noted the "prejudice caused to the petitioners by the report, the action plan and letters which were sent by the adviser on accountability and interior to various statutory bodies and violation and interference in the relevant schemes of law and the Constitution by the executive".
She said: "We hereby declare the impugned notification of March 16, 2020 and the impugned report of May 21, 2020 and all subsequent and consequent orders of the respondents [...] to be without lawful authority and of no legal effect, with regard to the petitioners, and quash the impugned report and all such actions and orders".
The court also restrained the federal government and all other government departments from directly or indirectly taking any action based on the findings of the report and directed the NAB chairman to open an independent inquiry under the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO) to determine if any acts of corruption had been committed by any of the petitioners, without reference to the report.
Moreover, the court also ordered FBR chairman to carry out an independent inquiry in accordance with the relevant tax laws to determine whether any "illegality" had been committed by any of the petitioners, without any reference to the report. It also issued directions to FIA to also conduct an independent inquiry under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 to determine if money laundering had been committed by any of the petitioners, without reference to the report.
The bench also directed the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to "fulfil their respective mandates in accordance with the law, with respect to the petitioners and the sugar industry".
The court also directed that the copies of the order be forwarded to the NAB chairman, the FBR chairman, the FIA director general, the CCP chairman, the SECP chairman, the SBP governor and the Sindh chief secretary.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Khalid Jawed Khan said that the government will move the Supreme Court against the high court's verdict.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020