KOHAT, April 7: The Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) have clarified a news item headlined `PHC stops oil, gas supply from NWFP to Punjab’, published in Dawn on Saturday.

A spokesman for the OGDC said the Peshawar High Court had merely asked the petitioners and respondents to submit their replies within one month on a petition filed by Kohat District Nazim Gohar Saifullah and 44 other nazims seeking the issuance of a directive to the respondents to stop the supply of oil and gas from the NWFP’s Shakardara and Gorguri fields to Punjab and other parts of the country.

The respondents in the case are the federal government, the OGDC and the SNGPL.

The OGDC spokesman said: “Nowhere in the order the judges have mentioned that oil and gas supply from the NWFP to Punjab province be stopped and the lawyer for the petitioner has given wrong information to the press. The matter is of serious nature. Therefore a clarification is necessary to remove confusion arising out of the reports published and broadcast by newspapers and TV channels.”

In a statement, a spokesman for the SNGPL said: “No restraining order has been passed (by the Peshawar High Court) for supply of gas to other provinces from Gorguri and Shakardara fields.”

The relevant portion of the court order reads: “As the respondents failed to file the parawise comments within two months and in the light of Article 158 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the contract known as Model Petroleum Concession Agreement, this petition is admitted to full hearing. Notice be issued to respondents as well as to the Attorney-General of Pakistan and NWFP advocate-general for a date to be fixed by the office. If the respondents want to file their written statements, they can do so.”