Sell all stocked sugar before Eid, orders SHC

KARACHI - Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the government to ensure a transparent process of the sugar sale and submit its report till December 9.
The provincial secretary for agriculture appeared before Justice Maqbool Baqar and submitted that the government would sell all the stocked sugar before Eidul Aza.
The secretary, informing the court over delaying the process of selling the stock of sugar of Najma Mills, said that they were not aware of the sugar stock in Mirpurkhas, but the government would now provide the sugar to the masses through lopes markets.
On the occasion, the counsels from both the sides requested the court that Selani Welfare Trust should be given over the task of selling sugar in order to make the process transparent. DCO Karachi also appeared before the court where he was directed to ensure the process of the sugar sale.
Earlier, in the last hearing the official assignee of the high court had submitted his report that the agriculture secretary had only bought 500 metric tones of sugar instead of 2,200 metric tones and the authorities concerned are not fulfilling the court’s direction in proper way.
The directions of selling the sugar at the price of Rs40 per kilogram was issued on the constitutional petition filed by Naveed Abrar against Najma Sugar Mills by submitting that he had purchased 4,400 tons of sugar from Najma Sugar Mills against advance payment but later the mill hypothecated the consignment with the bank for taking a loan facility.
On the other side, Supreme Court wile giving relief to the three convicts, who were sentenced to death by the trial court, turned their sentence in life imprisonment.
The convicts included Sherazul Haq, Qari Ghulam Yaseen and Sheraz Ahmed filed appeal before the apex court challenging their death sentence, awarded by the Anti Terrorist Court in kidnapping for ransom case in 2006.