LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday declared null and void the notices sent to sugar mills owned by the Sharif family and PTI leader Jahangir Khan Tareen by the joint investigation team and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

In its inquiry report made public last month, the Com­petition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) had noted that the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has maintained cartels among its members not only to protect inefficient mills but also to keep the commodity’s prices high.

In their petitions, the complainants had maintained the agencies did not have the authority to conduct such inquiries.

Their respective counsels told the court the federal government constituted an inquiry commission to probe the sugar crisis on March 16. The commission, they said, levelled “baseless” allegations of “corporate fraud” on the mills.

According to the petitioners, the cabinet’s directive to take action against the mills was unlawful.

In their appeals, the petitioners had requested the court to declare the JIT’s notice seeking records from the Sharif family’s Al-Arabia Sugar Mills as null and void.

The two-member LHC bench, comprising Justice Shahid Karim and Justice Sajid Mehmood Sethi, accepted the mills’ petition while announcing the reserved verdict on Thursday.

The court also quashed the notices sent to the sugar mills by the Securities Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

The bench further observed the SECP failed to play its role in accordance with the law. It further maintained that the FIA had the right to conduct an inquiry but the laws under which the inquiry can be conducted have to be ascertained.

The court observed that it will elaborate on the FIA’s powers in the detailed order that it will issue.

The complainants had also prayed to the court to also declare unlawfully, and consequently null and void, the federal government’s directives to the commission to conduct an inquiry against the Al-Arabia Sugar Mills and Tareen’s Faruqi Pulp Mills.

The court was also asked to have the show cause notices issued to the mills retracted and bar the commission from harassing them.

The LHC had earlier reserved the ruling in the case after listening to all the arguments, and on Thursday, temporarily accepted the petitioners’ appeals while announcing the verdict.