Sugar scam: Lahore High Court declares FIA's JIT 'null and void'

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Thursday declared the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) joint investigation team (JIT) team formed to probe the multi-billion-rupee sugar scam 'null and void', thereby granting a key relief to sugar mills owned by the Sharif family, PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen and others.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Shahid Karim and Justice Muhammad Sajid Mehmood Sethi heard a set of petitions filed by sugar mill owners, including the Sharif family and Tareen, in which they had challenged an FIA inquiry and its subsequent report regarding cartelisation and other illegal practices in the sugar industry.

The petitioners had maintained that the FIA did not have jurisdiction to constitute a JIT to probe the matter. They successfully argued that the agency acted on the federal government’s directives.

The bench noted that while the FIA was empowered to constitute JITs, the laws and circumstances under which an inquiry can be conducted remains to be seen. 

Observing that the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) failed to play its mandated role, the high court declared its notice to the sugar mills as null and void.

The bench said FIA’s powers will be discussed in the detailed judgment.  

Read more: Will play my part in helping PTI govt overcome sugar crisis, says Jahangir Tareen

Inquiry report

The sugar inquiry committee, headed by FIA Director-General Wajid Zia, had probed sugar price hikes and subsidies obtained by sugar mill owners during the past four years, particularly in 2019.

Among the people named in the FIA report were Tareen and a brother of PTI minister Khusro Bakhtiar. Tareen was said by the report to have benefitted the most from the sugar crisis, followed by Bakhtiar's brother.

The report also claimed that companies belonging to Moonis Elahi — an ally of the ruling party — had also profited from the sugar crisis. Elahi is Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi's son and a key member of the PML-Q.

The document had not mentioned under whose influence the Punjab government issued subsidies to sugar mills or why the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) approved the decision to export sugar.

Tareen, PTI's former general secretary, said that out of the Rs3 billion in subsidy given to the sugar mills, Rs2.5 billion were given when the PML-N was in power.