IN a surprising development, the Sindh High Court (SHC), on Tuesday, quashed the Sugar Inquiry Commission report as unlawful and directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and other statutory bodies’ investigation agencies to conduct independent inquiry with regard to corruption, tax evasion, money laundering and other allegations against the sugar mills without being influenced by the Inquiry Commission report. And in a related development, the sugar is being sold @ Rs. 110/- per kilogram in some parts of the country and above Rs. 100/- in most of the areas, making mockery of the entire process initiated by the authorities concerned to check unjustified hike in prices of the commodity.
There is no doubt that the verdict of the SHC is not final as the Federation has already announced to go into an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It is also noteworthy that the SHC has not absolved sugar mills, which had filed a petition against formation of the Commission, of any wrong-doing and instead directed relevant institutions of the Government to carry out independent inquiries to determine facts in an impartial and neutral manner. The order apparently is based on technicalities as highlighted by the court that the Inquiry Commission was constituted without following the mandatory rules of business and there was failure of the federal government to gazette the notification of the Commission within due time. The court observed that there was incomplete composition of the Commission and members of the Commission were biased besides the petitioners were not provided opportunity of hearing in the Commission to rebut the allegations. All this shows there might not be anything wrong with the findings of the Commission itself but the report has been declared unlawful as normal procedures were not followed. However, despite all this, the fact remains the judgement has further delayed prospects of any concrete action against those who not only manipulated prices of sugar in the past but are also continuing with the practice right now. The mafia seems to be more powerful than the system as instead of succumbing to the pressure for bringing down the prices it is jacking them further up. The net result of the entire situation would be that the consumers would continue to suffer for an indefinite period and no one knows whether or not they would ultimately get any relief. Now all hopes are pinned on arrival of imported sugar.
