The Chief Justice of Sindh High Court (SHC), Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh on Thursday constituted a two-member special bench of the court to hear the case of development works by oil & gas companies in various districts of the province.
The two-member bench will be comprised of Justice K K Agha and Justice Omar Sial to hold further hearing in the petition of Roshan Lakhan, a resident of District Ghotki, seeking the details of funds of oil & gas companies for development of various areas as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the light of an order of the Supreme Court, which the petitioner stated is not being implemented.
The bench hearing the case and headed by CJ SHC had sought the details from the Sindh Government as well as oil & gas companies about the development work, carried out in the districts of Sindh, where oil & gas exploration activities are underway.
In previous hearing, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) submitted the report claiming to spend Rs.290 million funds on the uplift work in various districts of the province after the court had sought the details of last 14 years from PPL about development works carried out in various district of province.
In 2013, Supreme Court (SC) directed oil & gas companies to carryout the development work in the areas of Sindh where these companies have been exploring oil & gas as well as measures for the skill development of workforce recruited locally.
Bench, however showed dissatisfaction over the report of PPL and directed Chief Secretary Sindh to submit the report in this regard.
During today's hearing of the case, the report submitted by Chief Secretary Sindh was based on the data given by the Deputy Commissioners of various districts.
Bench, however showed dissatisfaction over the report of Chief Secretary and observed that reports of few deputy commissioners seemed to be simply "table work" with no substantive material in them.
The report claimed that deputy commissioners complained about Director General Petroleum Concession, who is not cooperating with them about the data about development work.
Due to non-cooperation by the Director General Petroleum Concessions, the orders of the apex court are not being implemented, report submitted.
Bench summoned Director General Petroleum Concessions to appear on January 28, 2019as well as deputy commissioners of 18 districts of the province in the next hearing of the case.
Bench ruled that action would be taken against Chief Secretary Sindh and deputy commissioners of districts, if the contents of the report were found to be misleading.
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