‘We had appointed the commission to determine the cost of production and not to lecture us on economics,’ Justice Khawaja observed, saying the report had gone beyond its mandate.

The bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khawaja and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, had taken up identical appeals of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and the Punjab Sugar Association against a verdict of the Lahore High Court requiring the sale of the sweetener at Rs40 per kilogram.

At the last hearing, Competition Commission of Pakistan chairman Khalid Mirza, in a report submitted to the Supreme Court in his capacity as head of the commission, had criticised fixing of price by the court, terming it a short-term measure which was bound to cause harm in the long term. Describing the issue as political, Justice Khawaja conceded that it was not the domain of the Supreme Court to fix sugar prices, but it had to intervene under compulsion.

He said though the case was being heard for two months for which the bench even had to sit for hours, yet more time was being sought to arrive at some solution.

‘We are faced with this situation because we do not adhere to the Constitution,’ he observed, adding the court had a bunch of files containing stakeholders’ claims that they were with the public but the data suggested contrary to what they stated.

At one stage when Acting Attorney General Shah Khawar told the court that the decision about the prices had to be taken by the government, the chief justice observed that the court wanted to get out of this to let the government resolve the issue but ‘we would not allow sale of sugar at high prices’.

‘Let the political government do something for the public,’ the chief justice observed.

On the attorney-general’s request, the court adjourned the proceedings until Friday to enable the federal and provincial governments and sugar mills to work out a formula ensuring that common citizens who consume 30 per cent of the sugar output, conveniently get the commodity with dignity at a retail price of Rs38 to Rs40 in every nook and corner of the country.

‘We should not get media reports that the Supreme Court order is not being implemented,’ the chief justice warned.

Senior counsel Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, appearing as amicus curiae, told the court that 30 per cent of the entire stock in the country had been frozen because of which the situation was deteriorating day by day.

The burden should be shared by all instead of mill-owners, he said, fearing several sugar mills would default if the entire load was put on them. Many sugar mill-owners had failed to pay dues to farmers for the past two years because of a lack of working capital, he said, requesting the court to issue orders for unfreezing of stocks of major mills. Mr Pirzada informed the court that Punjab was lifting 4,000 tons of sugar from mills every day when it had a total stock of 300,000 tons. Similarly, Sindh has 70,000 tons, NWFP 60,000 tons and Balochistan 3,300 tons when it has been allocated a stock of 5,000 tons.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan imported 200,000 tons of the commodity as an emergency measure at an exorbitant price which becomes Rs56 per kg after calculation.

‘They could have imported at a lower price had they purchased the commodity in March,’ the chief justice lamented.