ISLAMABAD, Nov 3: The National Accountability Bureau has completed investigation into Rs82 billion Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority scam and decided to summon former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in another case relating to illegal appointment of former Ogra chief Tauqeer Sadiq, according to sources.

The Rawalpindi-Islamabad office of NAB has completed the probe into the alleged corruption in Ogra and sent it to the bureau’s headquarters for a final review in its executive broad meeting. NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry is expected to sign in two weeks a supplementary reference against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in the rental power projects (RPP) scam and the Rs82bn Ogra corruption case.

NAB spokesman Ramzan Sajid told Dawn on Sunday that the investigation had been completed on the directive of the Rawalpindi accountability court issued last week.

The court will take up the Ogra corruption case on Monday (today).

Tauqeer Sadiq and some other bigwigs are likely to face references for their alleged involvement in the scam.

NAB has recovered Rs13bn of the Rs82bn scam amount which will be paid to more than 4.2 million gas consumers through book adjustment by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) for charging ‘unaccounted for gas’ at higher rates from them (between 2009 and 2011) when Tauqeer Sadiq was serving as Ogra chairman.

The SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) had allegedly charged extra bills of Rs39bn with the connivance of Tauqeer Sadiq.

The NAB sources said SNGPL had to refund 62 per cent of the Rs39bn recoverable amount to its consumers. On the other hand, SSGC, which has to refund 38pc of the recoverable amount to its consumers, has obtained a stay order from the Sindh High Court restricting NAB from taking any action against the company.

The total number of consumers in the country are said to be 6.7m --- 4.2m receiving gas from SNGPL and 2.5m from SSGC.

During the interrogation of Sadiq, NAB realised that it had quoted an ‘unrealistic’ recoverable amount in the case as it could only recover about Rs1bn in cash from the accused which is 1.2pc of the entire amount of the scam.

An insider said that following the arrest of Tauqeer Sadiq, NAB had found itself in trouble as it had to prove its earlier claim made in the Supreme Court that the total corruption amount was of Rs82bn.

An allegation against Sadiq is that he manoeuvred to increase the cost of SNGPL and SSGC shares from Rs19 to Rs45 and then managed to revert it to its original price of Rs19. This reportedly caused a loss of about Rs500m to the national exchequer.

Another allegation is that he issued about 500 licences for setting up CNG filling stations and received Rs300,000 as commission for each licence. The total commission amount stood at Rs150m.

The former Ogra chief is also accused of allowing shifting of some 80 CNG stations from their approved sites and for that he allegedly got Rs300,000 as commission for each case. In this way he managed to get Rs240m.

Tauqeer Sadiq was arrested in Abu Dhabi and brought to Pakistan on July 9.

Former prime ministers --- Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervez Ashraf --- are accused of illegally appointing Sadiq as Ogra chairman.

NAB issued five notices to Mr Gilani, but he did not respond to any of them, saying he enjoyed immunity as former premier and that NAB could not summon him.

Mr Ashraf appeared before NAB twice and recorded his statement in the case.

According to the NAB Ordinance, a person defying three consecutive notices is liable to be arrested.

No action could be taken against the two former prime ministers because NAB had been without a head for several months.

The sources said that after appointment of the new NAB chairman, the bureau had decided to summon Mr Gilani for investigation.

Mr Gilani had challenged the bureau to arrest him and said. “I have not only appointed Tauqeer Sadiq but also a number of high-ranking officials during my tenure as prime minister, including the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Chief of the Army Staff, air and naval chiefs and the Joint Chief of Staff Committee.”

He contended that it would be unfair to say that the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq was illegal and that of others made by him was legal and justified.