January 12, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 21, 1427

KARACHI, Jan 11: The Sindh High Court restrained the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) from further processing of the contract of the Qadirpur gas compression project in favour of a Chinese concern.

Petitioner Zafar Mehmood Malik, an OGDC shareholder, alleged in an urgent application that the company was on notice for his pending petition against the award of the contract for January 18, but it was intent on transferring the project before answering the summons to present the court with a ‘fait accompli’.

He said the company, the public exchequer and the shareholders would suffer a loss of $150 million if the deal gets through.

Relying on the statement of Maj-Gen (retd) Saeed Wahla of M/s Petrosin Engineering (Pvt) Limited, the petitioner said the Qadirpur project was being given to Chinese Petroleum Engineering Company without bidding to compensate it for the loss of Tando Allahyar and Sanjhoro projects, which were awarded to Petrosin.

According to him, Saeed Wahla had a video film of the conversation wherein he was offered $22 million by the Chinese firm for backing out from the two projects. He sent the film to the president, the prime minister and the National Accountability Bureau chairman.

A division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Athar Saeed and Justice Faisal Arab restrained the OGDC till January 18 when the main petition and the application for injunction would come up for hearing.