ISLAMABAD – Sharif family faced yet another blow from the Supreme Court ofPakistan.
SC on Thursday ordered the relocation of three sugar mills owned by theformer ruling family to central Punjab.
The top court ruled the relocation of Ittefaq Suger Mills, Chaudhry SugarMills and Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills to south Punjab illegal, giving twomonths for shifting the machinery back to central Punjab.
The sugar mills were relocated in 2015 after the former provincialgovernment led by Shehbaz Sharif amended a 2006 notification which barredthe establishment of new sugar mills and the expansion and relocation ofthe existing ones.
In 2016, former PTI secretary general and tycoon Jahangir Tareen challengedthe relocation of mills before the Lahore High Court which declared therelocation illegal, last year.
Irked by the decision, the mill owners challenged the LHC verdict in thetop court, where it was heard by a three-member bench headed by ChiefJustice Saqib Nisar.
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Earlier this year, Justice Nisar had ordered that the mills should not bedismantled in their current location due to cane crushing season.
As the season is now over, the top judge, in a short order directed thatthe mills be relocated to their original locations in central Punjab withintwo months.
The buildings of the mills, which will be vacated after the relocation,should not be demolished and instead used for any other purpose, the topjudge remarked.
Renowned lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan appeared on behalf of Jahangir Tareen both inLahore High Court and Supreme Court.
