The Supreme Court on Wednesday termed the contract awarded to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) non-transparent and illegal and declared it null and void.
On January 7, 2010, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly was given a detailed briefing on the 2003 LPG quota scheme and it was informed about the major beneficiaries of the quota.
According to the documents presented to the PAC, former prime minister and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, former chairman of NAB Gen (r) Munir Hafeez, former federal minister for investment Senator Gulzar Ahmad, former interior ministers Gen (r) Moeenuddin Haider and Aftab Sherpao, former governor of Punjab Gen (r) Khalid Maqbool and former NBP president Syed Ali Raza were among the beneficiaries of the LPG quota.
Other beneficiaries included Captain (r) Bisharat and Brigadier (r) Siraj, friends of Gen Pervez Musharraf; Gen (r) Tariq Majeed; Humayun Farid, diplomat; Gen (r) Rehmat Khan, Chairman of Pakistan Cement; Rizwan Punjwani, head of NBP Credit Karachi, Ishtiaq Asif of NBP Karachi; and Jamal Akbar Ansari, a friend of Iqbal Z Ahmad, the committee was informed.
“These people got gas companies registered in the names of their relatives and they earned millions of rupees from the LPG quota given by JJVL,” the PAC was informed.
“Business tycoon and JJVL Chairman Iqbal Z Ahmad is the major afectee, as he had shared the windfall profits he managed over the years in the LPG sector with almost everybody who remained in the corridors of power during General Musharraf’s era,” a well-placed source told Pakistan Today.
Verdict:
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Gulzar Ahmed gave the ruling after hearing arguments in the LPG quota case.
While announcing the verdict, which was reserved on October 22, the apex court said that the SSGC-JJVL contract would be considered void from the date it was awarded – May 18, 2003.
The court order further said that the agreement relating to royalty payments was changed to benefit JJVL. The apex court ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take action against those responsible in the scam.
In its orders, the court declared the LPG quota deal as ‘non-transparent’ and cancelled agreement between the two groups. The SC ordered that all losses should be recovered.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Khawaja Asif had filed a petition against the auction of the LPG quota when he was in the opposition during the Pakistan People’s Party-led coalition government. The petitioner submitted that the auction of the LPG quota was not conducted in a transparent manner and had prayed for its annulment. He said that political figures and establishment’s bigwigs were involved in the deal of allotment of quota, inflicting a loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.
Following the court verdict, Minister for Water & Power & Defence Khwaja Asif told reporters outside the Supreme Court that the apex court had announced a historic decision. He said the LPG quota scandal had caused losses of billions of rupees to the national exchequer and several prominent personalities and politicians under former president Pervez Musharraf were involved in the scam.