Supreme Court on Thursday sought a copy of the decision of Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) that authorised Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to fix petroleum products' prices on a weekly basis. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain was hearing a case on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) prices.
During the course of hearing, the bench issued directives to Secretary Petroleum Waqar Masood to furnish reasons for interlinking fixation of CNG prices with petrol. The court also sought the copies of agreements between oil companies and government of Pakistan to ascertain the supply of petroleum products. The Secretary Petroleum was also asked to submit by November 24 the details of collected amount, charged through petroleum development levy.
The Secretary Petroleum apprised the bench that the federal government was fully implementing the recommendations of former Justice Bhagwan Das on the fixation of petroleum prices and it would not be suitable to say that the government was increasing the CNG prices without cogent reasons. He said that the ECC had given a new policy guideline to Ogra about the fixation of petroleum prices. In view of that policy, it had been decided that CNG prices would be interlinked with petrol prices, the secretary added. Expressing his concern, Justice Khawaja asked the secretary that when the CNG was a locally-produced item, why the government was interlinking its price with petrol as 85 percent of the latter product was being imported.
Referring to Article 3 of the Constitution, he said the state was bound to eliminate all forms of exploitation. The Chief Justice observed that due to an increase in CNG price, ordinary citizens were suffering. The secretary petroleum claimed that the government was extending a Rs 46 billion subsidy towards the benefit of domestic consumers as price of domestic gas was being reviewed after six months. He was of the opinion that that a review of petroleum prices on a weekly basis was useful for consumers.
Meanwhile, hearing the case about non-implementation of its judgement regarding the illegal appointment of Chairman Ogra Tauqir Sadi, the bench directed its Registrar to consult the Chief Justices of Sindh High Court and Lahore High Court about disposal of two cases relating to two gas companies, which were given stay orders in August 2010 to recover the loss of UFG from consumers at the rate of 7 percents, instead of 5 percent, within two weeks. About the arrest of Tauqir Sadiq, National Accountability Bureau (NAB) told the court that Inspector General Islamabad police was called in the headquarter for assistance in the matter . NAB official informed the bench that a reference against Sadiq would be filed today (Thursday). The hearing of case was adjourned till October 24.
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