The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday lauded the Supreme Court of Pakistan for its landmark decision on the LPG quota scam.
The decision declaring the LPG quota agreement between Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited by the Sui Southern Gas Company as illegal would go a long way in ensuring transparency in the future deals, it said.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hold all the beneficiaries of the quota scam responsible and to make all the recoveries would have a discouraging effect on favouritism, fake investors, and it would make the upcoming privatisation process transparent, said Dr Mughal.
He said deal between SSGC and JJVL was a result of collusion between LPG mafia and a former president that helped deprive masses and exchequer of tens of billions for over a decade.
The beneficiaries of the deal included elite, generals, federal ministers, top bureaucrats, lawyers, and politicians that must be brought to book, he added. Such an action had become imperative to discourage the tendency of rulers to oblige friends and to mint money disregarding all the rules and regulations.
Dr Murtaza Mughal said the upcoming deal between SSGC and Engro would remain transparent if the FIA and bureaucracy acted upon the directives of the court in the LPG quota case. SSGC and Engro will sign a Rs 220 billion LNG supply deal within one and a half month which would reduce gas crisis and provide relief to the masses if transparency was ensured, he said.
The government as well as the influential should know that flouting rules to favour near and dear ones had become difficult in the presence of an independent judiciary, he further commented.
