ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry has placed the names of nine people on the exit control list (ECL) on a request by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The nine have been named in the reference filed by NAB on Friday in the Ogra scam. They face charges of causing loss to the exchequer and consumers through unfair gas pricing, allowing higher gas losses to the Sui Southern (SSGC) and the Sui Northern (SNGPL), and gas price manipulations that resulted in benefits to certain entities.

According to a statement issued by the ministry on Saturday, those whose names have been placed on the list include Dewan Ziaur Rehman Farooqui, chief executive officer of Dewan Petroleum; Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, the Karachi-based stockbroker; Jawad Jamil, an official of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra); Rashid Lone, a former managing director (MD) of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines; Zuhair Siddique, the current managing director of the SSGC; and a former MD, Azeem Siddique.

The person last named is in the United States as he settled in that country after retirement two years ago.

The crux of the case – grant of permission by Ogra to SSGC and SNGPL for higher gas losses – occurred in 2011. At that time Dr Faizullah Abbassi was SSGC chief, but his name has neither been included in the ECL nor has NAB made a request for it.

Azeem Siddique was appointed MD in May 2012 and retired in November that year after Zuhair Siddique took charge.

Other names in the ECL are: Syed Arsalan, general manager, (finance), SSGC; Yousaf J. Ansari, deputy managing director in SSGC; and Mirza Mehmood, director in the SSGC as well as a board member of the SNGPL.

On Friday, NAB had filed a reference, over the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as Ogra chief, against two former prime ministers of the PPP-led government – Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf – in an accountability court. The bureau also filed a supplementary reference in the court in a case pertaining to Rs82 billion corruption committed in Ogra.