The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to explain that under which law licences were granted for as many as 17 CNG stations in a three kilometres radius of Gujranwala. It also asked how a licence was issued to a CNG station adjacent to a school in Lahore.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of a suo motu case relating to the approval of CNG stations during the tenure of two previous Prime Ministers, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf, subsequent to a note filed by the apex court's Registrar with press clipping of an Urdu daily of March 31, 2013. During the proceedings, the Chief Justice expressed dissatisfaction over Ogra's performance.
Chairman Ogra Saeed Ahmed Khan apprised the bench that a total of 400 licences were issued to set up CNG stations in the country from 2006 to 2011, adding that currently 3395 CNG stations were operational throughout the country. He informed Ogra received 6000 new applications for CNG station licences.
The Chief Justice observed that Federal Investigation Agency co-operated with the court over the CNG licence matter, saying National Accountability Bureau (NAB) failed to deliver in the matter. He remarked that if NAB would have been independent there would be no corruption in the country. Later, the bench adjourned the hearing of case till July 05.
Comments
Comments are closed.