KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the provincial cane commission to appear in court to inform it what measures had so far been taken to enforce the officially fixed price of sugar cane for the ongoing crushing season.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh was hearing the petition of the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA) against the sugar manufactures and the provincial authorities for not paying the sugar cane growers the price set by the government.

On Tuesday, petitioner’s counsel Advocate Mureed Ali Shah told the judges that only six out of total 34 sugar mills were purchasing sugar cane from growers at the price fixed by the provincial government, while remaining 25 sugar mills refused to pay the officially fixed price.

The counsel appearing for the sugar mills contended that the issue of sugar cane price was pending disposal in the Supreme Court as millers were unable to pay that higher price.

The SCA in its petition submitted that the SHC had in 2004 ordered the formation of a committee, headed by the federal industries secretary and all the provincial chief secretaries, the representatives of the sugar mills association, the Sindh Abadgar Board, to fix a fair, reasonable price for sugar cane by considering various relevant components and factors, including the cost of production.

The petitioner said several meetings were held under the chairmanship of the provincial agriculture secretary and the SCA submitted its proposal for fixing the minimum support price of sugar cane at Rs210 per 40 kilograms.

Later, it was submitted that this proposal was debated and it was decided that the minimum support price for crushing season 2014-15 should be Rs182 per 40kg.

It was submitted that the agriculture secretary had on Nov 7, 2014 issued an official notification approving the minimum price of sugar cane at Rs182 per 40kg for the crushing season of 2014-15 and on the same date, another notification was issued specifying Nov 14 for the commencement of the crushing season.

The petitioner said the respondents failed to implement the notification, affecting the livelihood of the sugar cane growers.

It was stated in the petition that the deregulation of sugar prices and the commencement date of the crushing season left the sugar cane farmers at the mercy of private sugar mills and the middlemen.

The petitioner alleged that some sugar mills were paying sugar cane prices at Rs150 to Rs155 per 40kg, instead of the officially fixed price, which was completely an arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, unconstitutional and gross violation of the notification.

The SCA petition said the representatives of growers, including the petitioner, approached the management of the mills for paying the officially determined price, but to no avail.

It said that several complaints were submitted to the agriculture secretary and the provincial cane commissioner to initiate action against such millers but they have also failed to act.

The court was asked to direct the authorities to implement the notification, through which the minimum support price was fixed at Rs182 per 40kg.

The petitioner further asked the court to order the authorities concerned to take action under the Sugar Factories Control Act 1950 against the sugar mills for violating the officially determined price and harassing the growers.

Population census

The SHC directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to inform it when it would hold a fresh population census in the country.

Headed by Chief Justice Faisal Arab, a two-judge bench was hearing the petition of Dr Muhammad Siddique Rathore, vice president of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP), who asked the court to direct the respondents to hold a census of the population of the province before holding the local government elections.

The court once again directed the respondents — PBS, cabinet and interior secretaries and the Sindh chief secretary — to file their detailed reports and proposals for conducting the census within the shortest possible time.

Meanwhile, the PBS (population census organisation) in its report said that the bureau was ready to conduct the census, but it needed at least 10 months to make necessary arrangements with the cooperation of the provinces to undertake the exercise.

It was stated that the exercise shall be concluded within such time subject to availability of financial resources as well as the security cover.

The report said that a meeting of Council of Common Interests (CCI) scheduled to be convened on March 10 would take up the issue of holding a fresh population census in the country.

It said that the bureau had already sent a letter to the inter-provincial coordination division to coordinate efforts towards arrangements for the census as directed by the court and submit a report.

The report further said that the PBS had taken up the matter with the prime minister.

The hearing was adjourned to April 3.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2015

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