JJVL LPG quota case: Counsel fears lasting damage to Supreme Court reputation

The Supreme Court was told on Monday that JJVL LPG quota case was not only scandalous but also an attempt to influence and scandalise the honourable court. Resuming his arguments, Irfan Qadir, the counsel for marketing companies of JJVL LPG quota case, argued that it was not the job of judges of Supreme Court to carry out lengthy investigations into factual or legal aspects of this case.
"In any case the petition has become infructuous as the same is directed against the government and the petitioner [Khawaja Muhammad Asif] is now himself a part and parcel of the federal government," he contended. He further said that there had been an enormous delay in filing of this petition, adding it deserved to be rejected on this score alone. "The entire case of the petitioner is based on two elements: "allegations and violations of certain PPRA rules".
He continued that the petitioner wanted the court to assume upon itself the functions, which the Constitution or the law hadn''t assigned to the judges of the Supreme Court. "It''s not the job of judges of the Supreme Court to carry out lengthy investigations into factual or legal aspects. In other words the Supreme Court is neither an investigating agency nor a court of plenary or original jurisdiction in contractual matters which is to be decided or resolved by the forums provided by law," he added.
He also said that in the instant case the petitioner wanted this court to exercise this extraordinary power not only in violation of well entrenched judicial precedents but to directly decide the legal and factual issues through bypassing the relevant and competent legal forums. One of the essential issues that had arisen in this case, he added, was also the subject matter of litigation before Lahore High Court. In cases of identity of subject matter in criminal and civil courts the law was well settled, he added.
"In these circumstances this honourable court should await the decision of the Lahore High Court in CAA No 20 of 2010. Order dated 11 February 2010 is also relevant for this purpose since the operation of the impugned order has been suspended therein," he maintained. He also prayed to the court to take notice of the fact during the pendency of this case the petitioner had stepped into the shoes of the respondents, adding the respondents in their comments had supported the petitioner or in other words a sitting minister of their government.
"Now that the petitioner and respondent are of the same view and are on the same side the cause of action has dissipated. The proper course for the respondent is to withdraw the petition so that his government may initiate action according to law," he argued. Resuming his arguments, Khawaja A. Tariq Rahim opened the argument by relying on the documents and material exchanged between the SSGC and JJVL. He said that from 1988 till 2005 LPG of more than 300 to 400 tons a day was wasted so a loss of around 4 billion a year was inflicted on the national exchequer due to "inefficiency" of governments of Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N).
He said that insofar as the price mechanism of LPG was concerned, the same was agreed on a higher price for payment of Royalty even when JJVL was selling LPG at a lower market rate and for about 5 months a Royalty was paid by JJVL from its own pocket when the project was started in March 2005. No loss of any kind was reported and no claim of any kind had ever been raised by the SSGC so the petition may be dismissed, he pleaded. Muhammad Azhar Siddiqui, representing two Marketing Companies namely Home Gas and Sehwan Gas, has submitted before the court that in CMA No 6244/2004 he seriously doubt the bonafide of Khawaja Muhammad Asif because he came before the Court to target only JJVL and in turn intended to award the contract to his blue-eyed favourite.
"Right now, the petitioner is not only a parliamentarian of the ruling party, but a minister for power, so he can at its own or through his government can take up any action as he desires. Asif is a businessman, his family members are also involved in the business and they had a direct contact with business tycoons and they might be shareholders," he contended. Hearing was adjourned till October 22.