The Supreme Court on Wednesday discharged the contempt of court notice issued to Sher Mhuammad Khan, Director-General, Petroleum Concessions (DGPC), for his remarks about judiciary, with a warning to be careful in future.
The notice was issued to the DGPC over his statement in a written reply: frivolous and baseless litigation in Sindh High Court and the apex court was adding to the miseries of the people and depriving them from 35 MMF (million cubic feet) of natural gas and causing an estimated loss of $1.5 million per day to the OGDC alone. "Why you did not object at the time when a 12-grade-fail Adnan A Khwaja was being appointed chairman of the OGDC, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday asked the DGPC, as he submitted unconditional apology to the court.
Meanwhile, the bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday postponed, for one week, the hearing of Qazi Hussain Ahmed's petition seeking stay against government plan to bid for its sold out asset from the British Petroleum (BP) at an inflated rate, which he claimed would cost the nation $800 million.
The court had directed the Secretary to submit relevant record regarding bidding for the sold out assets from the British Petroleum at higher rates. Imtiaz Qazi explained to the bench that the decision to go for bidding was approved by the board of directors of Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDC) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) which was entitled to give approval for such ventures. He apprised the court that British Petroleum Ltd, UK-based company, was a successor of UniTexas US and had been registered in Pakistan as foreign company under Companies Ordinance.
Salman Akram Raja, counsel for OGDC, said that BPL was an international share holder and registered as foreign company. He said the entire impression of sold out shares with a total amount of $140 million in 2002 was wrong, as the oil price at that time stood around at 21$per barrel. He also admitted that 20 percent depletion in ten wells was witnessed during this period.
In 2002, the then government had sold the Badin gas field to the British Petroleum for $100 million despite strong opposition and threat of resignation by former petroleum minister Usman Aminuddin. The minister had in a report accused former president Pervez Musharraf and prime minister Shaukat Aziz of forcing him to allow the deal for buying Occidental Petroleum`s shares in the gas field at a throwaway price in 2002.
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