Pakistan SC halts operations of three Sharif family sugar mills

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday halted crushing operations at three sugar mills owned by the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Hearing a case related to the shifting of these mills from north to south Punjab, a three-judge apex court bench headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar ordered the temporary halt of crushing operations of the Ittefaq, Chaudhry and Haseeb sugar mills, reports the Dawn.

Lawyers representing the JDW Sugar Mills Ltd told the bench that the shifting of the sugar mills is an illegal move as per a 2006 Punjab government notification that not only banned the creation of new mills, but also the shifting of their locations.

Defence counsel Salman Akram Raja argued that a 2015 amendment in the 2006 notification, overseen by the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, made provisions for the shifting of sugar mills from one point to another, although the creation of new mills remains illegal.

As the court ordered a halt in the mills' crushing operations, the defence counsel contended that such a move would render thousands of employees jobless and the mills' would lose Rs.380 million in revenue.