BAHAWALPUR: The district administration may sell around 45,000 sugar bags to consumers at subsidised rates after the commodity was recovered from the sugar mill of Sharifs’ family in Channigoth.

The district administration announced the confiscation of the sugar bags following a raid on Channigoth’s sugar mill owned by the Sharifs’ family on Monday.

Deputy Commissioner Shozeb Saeed told Dawn on Tuesday that on a tip-off, he formed a raiding team led by Ahmedpur East assistant commissioner and comprising personnel of the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs). He said the team seized about 45,000 sugar bags from the mill godown and these were being recounted. He said the issue had been referred to the Punjab government whose instructions were awaited.

He said the seized sugar could be sold the general public at Rs70 per kilogram fixed by the government.

As for the mill management version, the DC said it claimed that the seized sugar was pledged with a bank and had been stocked in the mill. However, the DC expressed his surprise over the claim and said the mill had not been crushing the sugarcane for the last two years, therefore, the claim sounded baseless.

The Channigoth police have yet to register a case. The DPO’s PRO told Dawn that police were waiting for complaint by the AC.

Mills General Manager Kashif Munir declined to speak on the issue.

INJURED: A PML-N leader from Yazman and his friend were injured in an attack near his village on Monday night.

According to police sources, unidentified people opened firing on Chaudhry Javed’s car and injured him and his friend. Both were admitted to hospital.

The Yazman city police registered a case.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2020