LAHORE: Hearing a public interest petition for action against those responsible for Ahmadpur East oil tanker incident, the Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to ensure that tankers not meeting the requisite criteria were not allowed to transport petroleum. Earlier, a report submitted by Ogra revealed that only 40 per cent of total 12,000 tankers fulfilled the criteria and were fit to transport petroleum products. The authority said the Oil Tankers’ Association was not willing to enforce the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government.

It said if the oil tanker of Shell Company’s contractor had been properly checked the incident of Ahmadpur East would not have happened. It further said that no record was found of the manufacturer of the tanker which caused deaths of 200 people.

Ogra confirmed the Shell had paid Rs10 million fine imposed on it for showing negligence and also paid compensation to the victims’ families. Petitioner’s counsel Safdar Shaheen Pirzada told the court that five more accidents involving oil tankers had taken place since Ahmedpur East tragedy, exposing the authorities’ inefficiency.

On court’s query, motorway police deputy inspector general (DIG) said suggestions had been forwarded to the authorities concerned to avert such incidents.

During the hearing, Shell’s counsel said the fine was imposed only on his client and no action was taken against any other oil company involved in similar incidents. Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah directed Ogra to respond to the point on the next hearing and also come up with an effective policy on the use of standard oil tankers to avoid Ahmadpur East-like incidents in future. The court would resume hearing on Sept 25.

Helms Foundation, an NGO, had filed the petition praying the court to hold responsible for the tragedy all departments concerned who miserably failed to perform their obligations resulting in loss of so many human lives.

Disposed OF: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday disposed of petitions challenging outsourcing of management control of Allama Iqbal International Airport, Lahore, after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) told it that the project had been scrapped.

Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah was hearing the petitions filed by PPP former federal minister Dr Mubashir Hassan, employees of CAA and others, when counsel for the aviation authority stated that the project of outsourcing the airport’s management control had been dropped.

Relying on the statement, the chief justice disposed of the petitions.

On May 30, the chief justice had stayed the process of outsourcing management control of Lahore airport and directed the government to explain as to how national security would be ensured after handing over control of the airport to foreign organisation.

The petitioners had stated that the Civil Aviation Act did not allow outsourcing or privatisation of the airports for being sensitive premises. They said the airports were used for emergency landing of passenger and air force planes during war situation. They said outsourcing of the airports would amount to risking the national security. They asked the court to restrain the government from outsourcing the airports.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017