KARACHI, July 2: The Sindh High Court asked the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) on Monday to furnish the entire record pertaining to the bidding process of the Qadirpur gas field project for a day-to-day hearing of a petition questioning its legality as the matter involved public interest.
The petition was initially moved by an ODGCL shareholder, Zafar Mahmood Malik, but was later joined in by M/s Petrosin Engineering (Pvt) Limited. The petitioners said that the award of the gas field project to M/s China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation for $150 million was not transparent and caused a heavy loss to the public exchequer.
The shareholder said the OGDC would suffer financially due to the deal. They relied on a newspaper report and audio and video tapes to contend that the project was contracted out for extraneous considerations.
A division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Maqbool Baqar advised the firm to move a separate petition for payment of its dues if it so desired.
The petitioners were asked to submit the record they were relying on. The matter would proceed from day-to-day with effect from August 9. Advocates Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, Munir A. Malik, Rasheed A. Razvi, Raza Hashmi and Hassaan Sabir are representing the various parties.
Pre-arrest bail
The Sindh High Court allowed on Monday pre-arrest interim bail to a traffic police inspector being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau for owning assets disproportionate to known sources of his income.
Inspector Kamran Rizvi submitted through Advocates Mohammad Ashraff Kazi and Sajid Munir Shah that he had not indulged in corruption or corrupt practices but had been involved in the NAB investigation by his divorced second wife, Mehwish.
A division bench consisting of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Maqbool Baqar granted him interim bail in the sum of Rs500,000 till July 9 and issued a notice to the NAB for that date.
