ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has submitted a call attention notice to the National Assembly secretariat seeking an explanation from the government over reports of the alleged misuse of power by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in approving gas connections in the constituencies of influential politicians.

The PPP members in their notice submitted to the secretariat on Monday drew attention of the federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, towards the prime minister’s move and said it was “misuse of power and negation of merit”.

The PPP members quoted documents from the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and said that the prime minister had violated merit in the allocation of the new gas connections mostly in the constituencies represented by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or those affiliated with it.

“Such a biased and prejudiced attitude of the government is highly condemnable and warrants instant action. This is a serious matter and needs to be discussed immediately on the floor of the House,” read the notice signed by eight members of the PPP, a copy of the letter was provided to the media by the office of the leader of opposition.

The notice carries the signature of former minister for petroleum and natural resources Syed Naveed Qamar, along with MNAs Shazia Marri, Nawab Yousuf Talpur, Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, Imran Zafar Leghari, Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Abdul Sattar Bachani and Shagufta Jumani.

Prime Minister Sharif reportedly relaxed the moratorium on gas connections for 55 constituencies of influential politicians and federal ministers since May last year, 35 similar cases are still in the pipeline, while in two cases, he turned down the proposals for connections with the SNGPL network.

These details were submitted to the Islamabad High Court by SNGPL’s counsel during the hearing of a petition filed by Advocate Jahangir Jadoon who is seeking gas connections for his village, Kholian Bala in Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The counsel disclosed that the prime minister had also approved billions of rupees of direct funding for these schemes.

Interestingly, Mr Qamar’s name is also on the waiting list.

Despite repeated attempts, Mr Qamar could not be contacted for comments.

The previous PPP government had imposed the ban on new connections in 2011 because of a serious natural gas shortage in the country.

According to the details provided in court, the PM had relaxed the moratorium for the constituencies of his son-in-law retired Capt Muhammad Safdar, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Housing and Works Minister Akram Khan Durrani, Mr Abbasi, Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Chaudhry Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sheikh Aftab, National Health Services Minister Saira Afzal Tarar, Defence Production Minister Rana Tanvir, Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali, Minister of State for Interior Muhammad Balighur Rehman, Chairman of Standing Committee on Human Rights Babar Nawaz Khan, former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and former senator Zahid Khan.

The cases submitted to the prime minister and awaiting approval include the names of KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Sherpao, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Food Security Sikandar Bosan, Minister for Human Rights Kamran Michael, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi, PPP’s Naveed Qamar, PTI MNA Ali Muhammad Khan, Awami National Party Senator Baz Muhammad Khan, PML-N’s KP president Pir Sabir Shah, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Climate Change Hafeezur Rehman Drishak and Talal Chaudhry.

According to legal experts, the PM’s approval for releasing direct funding for such projects is an illegal move.

In order to support this argument, they cite an Aug 18, 2016, judgement in which the Supreme Court observed: “The Constitution does not permit the use/allocation of funds to MNAs/MPAs/notables at the sole discretion of the prime minister or the chief minister. If there is any practice of allocation of funds to the MNAs/MPAs/notables at the sole discretion of the prime minister/chief minister, the same is illegal and unconstitutional.”

The judgement issued on the prime minister’s powers declared that the PM could not bypass the federal cabinet.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017