ISLAMABAD Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP) on Thursday moved the Supreme Court for nationalization all eighty sugar mills under Article-3 of the constitution of Pakistan, 1973.
The case for nationalization of sugar mills was moved and filed in Supreme Court under Article-3 read with Article-3 and 38(a) of the constitution by the CPP through its party chairman, Engineer Jameel Ahmad Malik.
The Communist Party in its petition said that the hoarding and price hike of sugar by the sugar mafia had made the life of down trodden masses and the public at large very miserable.
While replying to a question, Engineer Jamil said that the problems of the people could be solved neither by democracy nor dictatorship. It is only socialism that can solve the problems, he said.
CPP stressed that the privatization policy was wrong and anti people. In Pakistan the net beneficiaries of privatization were always the global vested interests and their local agents and henchmen who got hefty commissions and kickbacks for these shoddy deals while the net sufferers were the poor people of Pakistan.
Engineer Jameel in his petition wrote that in China all the industries, including sugar, are owned by the government and no member of the ruling elite of the communist party of China dares mint money as our ruling politicians and members of the opposition benches are doing by hoarding sugar and raising it price. Secondly, he said, the price of sugar and all other commodities were fixed by the Chinese government.
Engineer Jameel said that it was the talk of the town that PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif, President Asif Ali Zardari, Chaudhry Shujaat, NA Speaker Fatima Mirza, Federal Commerce Minister Humayan Akhtar, Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif, Former Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi, and the Hoti family were all owners of these sugar mills and so there was no check in the hoarding.
He requested the Supreme Court to summon all records from the concerned departments so that people could know the real facts.
The Lahore High Court had fixed the price of sugar at Rs40 per kg but instead of complying with the orders, the sugar mafia has openly defied the orders and the federal and provincial governments have been compelled to sell sugar at Rs50 per kg.
In these circumstances the CPP requested the apex court to nationalize all 80 sugar mills in accordance with the basic manifesto of the PPP written by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and under Article-3 and 38(a) of the constitution or alternatively under appropriate orders against the sugar mafia which would give relief to the people.
He said in the petition that no political party had moved any motion or resolution in parliament concerning the hoarding and price hike of sugar. They are only making statements in newspapers for point scoring and not for solving the problems, said Engineer Jameel.
He maintained that all political parties in parliament, including the PPP and the opposition, were not playing any concrete role against the hoarding of sugar and the price hike and in such circumstances; the Supreme Court was the right forum to decide these matters.
In the end he hoped that 'justice shouldn't only be done, but should also be seen to be done.'—Online
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