ISLAMABAD: Senior officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGCL) and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) involved in a Rs82 billion Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) scam are still holding public offices, sources told Dawn on Monday.

They said that except for former Ogra chairman Tauqeer Sadiq, all other accused were still working for the authority and the gas companies although the National Accountability Bureau’s standard operating procedure says that a person holding a public office would be removed from his position if a reference has been filed against him.

The Ogra scam has two segments, one related to corruption and the other about appointment of Mr Sadiq. In the second reference, prime ministers Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf have been nominated.

Mr Sadiq recently filed a petition in the Supreme Court complaining that he was being victimised and no other accused had been arrested or removed.

Seven main accused still holding public offices are: SSGCL Managing Director Zuhair Siddiqui, General Manager Finance Syed Arsalan Iqbal (from whose bank account details of SSGCL’s shares have been recovered), Member of SNGPL and SSGCL Boards of Directors Mirza Mehmood, SNGPL Deputy MD Yousuf J. Ansar, Mr Sadiq’s personal staff officer Jawad Jamil, former chairman of Punjab Public Service Commission Zafar Mehmood and PPSC Member Shaukat Hayat Durrani.

Some of the officials who have retired but not arrested include Ogra’s executive director Javed Nazir and SNGPL’s former MD Rashid Lone.

When contacted, NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid said: “Tauqeer Sadiq, Mansoor Muzaffar and Jawad Jamil were arrested because they were not cooperating with the NAB investigation. Bail has been granted by the courts.”

On the other hand, charge-sheets have been issued to investigation officers in some old cases allegedly to keep them off the Ogra reference filed in an accountability court in Islamabad in January.

Similarly, the sources said, witnesses were being harassed and they had written more than 20 letters to the NAB chairman and sought protection.

But the NAB spokesman denied that the investigation officers were being harassed by NAB authorities.

“Each case in which a conviction is not obtained is inquired into to establish reasons for failure and ensure improvement. In routine, show-cause notices are issued to all concerned. The investigation officer is not the only officer who has been issued a notice in that case,” he said.

Mr Sadiq, recently released on bail, was arrested from Abu Dhabi and brought to the country on July 9 last year. The main charges against him pertain to charging consumers Rs39bn extra through inflated gas bills, manipulating share prices in the stock market and issuing 500 CNG licences and permitting the shifting of about 80 filling stations after receiving commission.