MULTAN:Haseeb Waqqas Sugar Mill (HWSML), a public limited company being closed for the last five years in Alipur was made re-functional on Tuesday.
Farmers of the area organized here a ceremony in the connection with pump and show. The boiler of the mill was switched on and a fire was lit in the boiler. Prayers were offered followed by sweets distributed to mark jubilation.
Farmers including Allah Dad Khan, Ghulam Sarwar, Shaukat Ali, Rahim Bakhsh and many others on the occasion, expressed their happiness on re-starting of the mill. They said that after the closure of the mill some 5 years ago, about 900 families of Alipur and beyond were unemployed with development stopped across the entire region following reduction of the cash flow.
They further said that the sugarcane farmers had to face many difficulties to sell their sugarcane as the mill seized its functioning.
“I was forced to carry sugarcane and sell it in pieces on account of enormous increase in sugarcane transportation costs” a farmer Ali Ghazanfar told reporter. He said that now with the re-opening and functionalization of the mill, farmers would be able to get the right price for their sugarcane crop and collecting reasonable profit like in the past.
HWSML is one of the largest white refined sugar manufacturers in Pakistan with a Sugar Cane Crushing Capacity Of 10,000 M. It was incorporated in 1991 as a public limited company.