Supreme Court on Monday summoned Secretary Petroleum and Chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) over Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) price. Heading a three-member bench, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing against the appointment of former chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqir Sadiq.
Summoning Secretary Petroleum Dr Waqar Masood and incumbent chairman Ogra Saeed Ahmed Khan to appear before the court on October 18, the court also issued directives to the concerned officials to club the report of one-man commission of former Justice Rana Bhagwandas on oil price with the case. Chief Justice observed, "it doesn't make sense that consumers should pay for covering up theft losses of CNG particularly in the absence of any development or welfare schemes."
Submitting a report relating to former chairman Ogra Touqir Sadiq, Investigating Officer (IO) of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Waqas Ahmed apprised the bench that the Bureau still had to recover a loss of Rs 44 billion in the oil and gas sector.
He further said that appointment of Tauqir Sadiq resulted in a loss of Rs 83 billion to oil and gas sector. A member of the bench Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja observed that gas line losses were reported to be reduced gradually after financial year 2002 but post-effect of Sadiq's appointment as Ogra Chairman resulted in more line losses. He further revealed that in order to recover the losses, Ogra increased tariff charges for SNGPL and SSGPL, which badly affected consumers.
Addressing the IO, Justice Khawaja asked him to carry out the investigation in relation to the appointment matter of Sadiq without fear and favour for probing. Apprising the bench, the IO added that as many as 460 marketing licenses were issued to set up CNG stations in the country during the tenure of Sadiq, which led to an acute gas shortfall and an alarming rise in incidents of gas theft. According to him, CNG price may be increased to Rs 105 per kg within next few days. He said that currently gas line losses are 10 per cent as compared to one or two per cent world-wide. To recover previous losses, the present regime has been increasing tariff, according to him. The hearing was adjourned till October 18.
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