LHC issues show cause notices to sugar mills of Khusro Bakhtiar, Sharif family

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday issued notices to the sugar mills owned by the Sharif family and Federal Minister for National Food Security Khusro Bakhtiar on the application of the Competition Commission of Pakistan seeking dismissal of the mills’ petitions.

Appearing on behalf of the CCP, Barrister Ahmed Qayyum argued that since the formation of the Competition Commission Appellate Tribunal has been completed and in presence of the competent forum the petitions of sugar mills should be rejected. He pointed out that the petitions had become ineffective.

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The counsel for petitioner contended that under the law seven members were required to complete the formation of the appellate tribunal, whereas currently, the tribunal has only four members.

He said that until the formation of the Competition Commission was completed, it had no authority to take any action against the sugar mills.

Earlier, the Sharif family and Bakhtiar’s sugar mills had approached the court on the incompleteness of the CCP Appellate Tribunal and challenged the show cause notice issued to the sugar mills on the incompleteness of the members of the tribunal.

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After hearing arguments from both sides, Justice Ayesha A Malik sought a reply from the sugar mills on CCP’s application and extended the stay order against execution of the show cause notices.