The Supreme Court was told on Tuesday that the government had allotted the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) quota on political grounds, even to those people who did not have any background in business.
A two-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarians Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Barjees Tahir and Abid Sher Ali challenging the implementation agreement between the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) and Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) on a LPG extraction plant.
Khawaja Asif, who appeared in court in person, alleged that huge irregularities were made in the allocation, distribution and award of LPG quota by the government. To a court query, he said retired army officers Khalid Maqbool, Muneer Hafeez and Moinuddin Haider, two former chairmen of the National Accountability Bureau and politicians were among those who were included in the LPG distribution quota. He said the companies of the quota’s beneficiaries companies had formed cartels to influence LPG prices.
Aitzaz Ahsen, counsel for JJVL (a LPG company), argued that his client had brought $100 million in investment to Pakistan’s LPG sector after the 9/11 incident when nobody was willing to do so. He said his client was among the three companies that qualified in the bidding out of a total of nine. He said all the claims made by the petitioner were based on hypotheses. He said there was no allocation of quota and it was a misnomer, and JJVL, which had a state-of-the-art plant, also paid royalty to the SSGCL worth billions of rupees.
He said the allocation was not the government’s to give away, but was determined by free bidding. To a court query, he said if re-bidding was held it would cause a shortage of 200 to 300 tons of LPG in the country, as no one would come forward to bid for a depleting field. To a court query, Khawaja Asif said the contract had caused a loss of Rs 8 billion to the SSGCL and those involved in the shady transaction must be held accountable.
He said that the bidding process must be repeated afresh. He said the replies filed by the SSGCL substantiated his stance to a great extent.