The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday put a ban on issuance of licenses to 200 CNG stations setting aside directions by former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
The court also directed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to present the criteria for issuing of licenses before the bench during the next date of hearing.
The ban was put by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed during hearing of a suo moto notice on illegal issuance of licenses to 200 CNG stations.
The counsel for OGRA, Iftikhar Gillani, denied that 200 CNG stations were granted licenses during the last days of the previous government.
He categorically stated that Ashraf issued instructions to OGRA on March 13, 2013 for awarding of licenses to 200 CNG stations, however the authority did not grant a single license to any of the stations as they did not meet the criteria.
Gillani further said the authority issued 64 licenses which were pending since many years adding that they had no connection with the 200 licenses in question.
The bench appreciated OGRA’s stance stating that a little courage had barred an illegal act.
During the course of proceedings, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director Azam Khan presented OGRA’s record pertaining to issuance of licenses to 200 CNG stations.
The bench was apprised that the record included 1,541 files however, 1,508 were presented before the court, while the remaining 33 would be submitted in a day’s time.
Azam Khan said during the last five years, OGRA received some 7,000 applications, out of which 1,541 licenses were issued for the setting up of CNG stations throughout the country.
The CJ inquired about the procedure for granting licenses to CNG stations, to which Petroleum Secretary Abid Saeed said OGRA was the authority that granted licenses and would be in a better position to address the query.
The CJ asked how many licenses were issued to a district or a region during a year.
Saeed said it all depended on the Gas Load Management Plan and consumption of gas by domestic and commercial consumers.
However the CJ while expressing dissatisfaction over the reply stated he himself knew about numerous CNG stations cluttered at one place, sharing walls.
Later, the bench in its order directed the respondents to explain the formula for installing CNG stations in all four provinces and Islamabad.
The bench directed the petroleum secretary to conduct a departmental inquiry into the import of thousands of Liquefied Cylinders (LCs) and present a report before the court during the next hearing.
The case was adjourned till April 22.
