PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday disposed of MNA Aqibullah Khan’s contempt petition against the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited bosses and the prime minister’s secretary after giving respondents a month to comply with its earlier order for the supply of natural gas to around two dozen villages in Swabi district.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the order after the lawyer for the SNGPL said the court’s order on gas supply would be adhered to.

The petitioner, a PTI MNA, had pleaded that the contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the respondents and that they be punished in accordance with the law.

The respondents in the contempt petition were SNGPL Peshawar region general manager Arbab Saqib; secretary to the prime minister Fawad Hasan Fawad; petroleum secretary Arshad Mirza, and SNGPL managing director Amjad Lateef.

On June 1, 2016, a high court bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hilali had accepted a petition of Aqibullah Khan directing the SNGPL to supply natural gas to around two dozen Swabi villages, which are part of his constituency.

PTI MNA’s contempt plea disposed of

The petitioner had claimed that the people of around two dozen Swabi villages had been in distress by the unavailability of natural gas and that ironically, gas pipelines had been laid in the nearby villages.

He had added that few years ago, the SNGPL had estimated the cost of the gas supply to the villages at Rs600 million and even the government paid Rs50 million to it for the purpose and promised to give the rest in the ‘near future’ but the promise remained unfulfilled.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Sabitullah Khalil, lawyer for the petitioner, said the petition was decided in favour of his client but the officials hadn’t acted on the decision in the next nine months.

He said a number of people had applied for gas connections and fulfilled all requirements but the officials pressured by PML-N leaders, were creating hurdles to them.

The lawyer said there was neither any stay order of the apex court nor any other genuine reason for the respondents to follow the court order.

He said Rs50 million was paid to the SNGPL for gas supply to the villages in question after all codal formalities were met through a letter on Nov 11, 2013.

The lawyer added that his client and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar had also formally requested the prime minister to relax the moratorium on gas supply to the said areas.

Salim Baig and Haji Mohammad Zahir, lawyers for the SNGPL in some other case, accepted the court’s notice on behalf of their client and promised to comply with the court’s order.

The petitioner claimed that despite the ban on new gas connections, the SNGPL laid so many gas pipelines in different areas of Malakand but the people of Swabi had fallen victim to the politically motivated and discriminatory attitude of the PML-N-led federal government in this respect.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2017