Nine accused facing corruption references for their alleged involvement in a massive Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) scam have been barred from travelling abroad, sources told Pakistan Today on Saturday.
According to Ministry of Interior, those whose names have been put on the Exit Control List (ECL) include chief of AKD Securities Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, former MD Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) Rashid Lone, former SSGC MD Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, SSGC MD Zubair Siddiqui, GM SSGC Syed Arsalan, Deputy MD Yousaf J Ansari, Ogra official Jawwad Jamil, members SSGC & SNGPL BoD Mirza Mehmood.
Earlier on Friday, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) filed a reference against two former prime ministers of the PPP government — Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf — in the accountability court relating to the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as OGRA.
Besides the reference against the two former prime ministers, the NAB also filed a supplementary reference in the accountability court against stockbroker Aqeel Karim Dhedhi and other co-accused in a mega corruption case of Rs 82 billion in OGRA.
NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry signed the two references on Thursday and subsequently the references were filed on Friday following the approval of the NAB Executive Board for the two references in the multi-billion OGRA scam.
After filing the references, the NAB also submitted a report to the Supreme Court on the multi-billion OGRA scam on the directives of the apex court.
When contacted, NAB Spokesman Ramzan Sajid confirmed that both the references had been filed in the accountability court after the signature of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.
It may be noted that the NAB Executive Board gave its approval for filing the two references on Wednesday. In the reference on the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as OGRA chairman, the accused persons include former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, former minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (Chairman Selection Committee), Shaukat Durrani, Member Technical for selection process, Javed Nazir, Member selection committee from OGRA, Sikandar Hayat Mekan, ex-senior joint secretary Cabinet Division, and Tauqeer Sadiq (the beneficiary).
The supplementary reference in the OGRA corruption case was filed against the accused Tauqeer Sadiq, Mansoor Muzaffar, Mir Kamal Fareed Bijrani, Jawad Jamil, Dewan Zia ur Rehman Farooqi, Abdur Rashid Lone, Zohair Siddique, Azeem Iqbal Siddique, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, Syed Arsalan Iqbal, Mirza Mehmood Ahmed and Yousaf J Ansari.
The interim reference against the prime accused Tauqeer Sadiq in the multi-billion scam of Rs82 billion had already been filed in the accountability court in November 2012.
According to the sources, the references against Gilani and Ashraf and the selection committee that recommended the name of Tauqeer Sadiq as the OGRA chairman comprised nine pages while the reference that was filed in the OGRA corruption case comprised seven pages.
