MULTAN/MUZAFFARGARH: Though the crushing operation in the three sugar mills owned by the Sharif family has been stopped for the last two months on the directions of the Supreme Court, the mills owe farmers over Rs400 million on sugarcane dues, Dawn has learnt.

On Feb 8, a three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, had ordered halting the crushing operations of the mills while hearing a case on the shifting of the Ittefaq Sugar Mills from Sahiwal to Bahawalpur, Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills from Nankana Sahib to Muzaffargarh and Chaudhry Sugar Mills from Toba Tek Singh to Rahim Yar Khan.

Saeed Ahmed, a sugarcane farmer from Kot Samaba (RY Khan), said the mill administration had tried to remove the sugar stock from the mill after a couple of days of the court orders, but the farmers resisted.

“We were on alert after the court order and kept manning the mill gates for five days,” he said.

He said that Chaudhry Munir, father-in-law of Mehrunnisa Safdar, the granddaughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, intervened and asked the brother of local PML-N MNA to clear payments. He says the estimated dues were about Rs450 million.

“The maximum share of the dues has been cleared,” he said.

Chaudhry Sugar Mill General Manager Haji Talib Hussain said though he did not know the exact amount, all dues, however, had been cleared.

Liaquatpur Kissan Ittehad President Malik Inayatullah Awan said that Ittefaq Sugar Mills had also started paying dues, though the process was slow.

He said the mill had yet to pay Rs150 million to farmers, of which Rs40 million had been payable since 2015.

Ittefaq Mills General Manager Mirza Muhammad Ali said they had paid Rs68.39 million to farmers and the process would take a few days to complete.

Haseeb Waqas Sugar Mills General Manager AB Shaheen said that they would make a policy to pay the dues only after the court decision as farmers were also a party to the case.

“We can make the payments if the court allows us to complete the crushing,” he said.

He, however, chose not to disclose the exact payable amount.

Local farmer Adnan Khan Jatoi claimed that the payable amount was Rs250 million.

On Feb 10, farmers and sugarcane brokers had held a sit-out at the mills gate demanding the release of their dues. The then deputy commissioner had to negotiate with the protesters.

The protesters had been assured their dues would be cleared by the end of February. The mill administration had also pledged in writing.

The farmers again held a demonstration on March 3, after the mills administration failed to pay the dues. This time police was called to disperse the protesters. Dues have yet to be paid.

Sabir Hussain and Ahmed Bukhari, both farmers, said that now the mill administration had openly refused payments.

Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur deputy commissioners Socrat Aman Rana and Rana Saleem Afzal, respectively, were not available for comment while Muzaffargarh Deputy Commissioner Saif Anwar Jappa also followed the mill policy, saying as the matter was in court, the district government was unable to take any measure.

“The step for the payment of dues to the farmers will be taken as per the government policy which will be devised only after the final verdict of court over the issue,” he said.

He said he was not aware about the exact amount of dues as so far it has not been discussed in any official meeting.The court will hear the case on April 10.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2017