KARACHI: An accountability court has issued a non-bailable warrant for arrest of a foreigner in a case involving alleged corruption of $121.6 million in Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) through acquisition of assets of a United Kingdom-based oil and gas exploration company.

The judge of Accountability Court-IV, Suresh Kumar, directed the investigating officer to arrest Pavel Marek, director/owner of M/s Moravske Naftove Doly (MND), and produce him before the court on Oct 5.

The judge also issued notices to five top officers of the PPL, directing them to appear before the court on the next day of hearing.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed a reference nominating former managing director/chief executive officer of PPL Asim Murtaza Khan, general manager Abdul Wahid, deputy MD Moin Raza Khan, chief economist Rahat Hussain, financial adviser Khaqan Saadullah and Mr Marek as suspects.

In the reference, the anti-graft watchdog said the chairman of PPL had filed a complaint based on allegations of corruption in the purchase of corporate assets, including working shares in the block of M/s Moravske Naftove Doly Exploration and Production, a United Kingdom-based oil and gas exploration company registered by its director/owner Mr Marek, a native of the Czech Republic.

Complaint was made to NAB by then PPL chairman

During investigations it was revealed that PPL, having working of interest (WoI) of three per cent, is also the operator in the Barkhan block, where M/s MND with Wol of 50pc is partner along with Osterreinchische Mineralol Verwaltung (OMV), thus the PPL possessed the best information about the block.

The reference mentioned that as per the findings of the investigations, prior to the bidding process/offer of the MND assets, a technical committee meeting was held on Feb 27, 2012, where all information (including technical, financial, prospects and others) were discussed by the partners.

At the meeting, the value of the block was estimated at $45 million ($18.9m of the PPL, $27m of the MND and $8.1m of the OMV), it said.

The investigations revealed that suspect Asim Murtaza Khan, being the managing director of PPL, received an email dated March 8, 2012 from M/s First Energy, which was a financial advisory company representing Mr Marek, who offered to sell MND assets to PPL.

The email was forwarded to the business development department of the PPL, headed by suspect Abdul Wahid. Thereafter, Mr Khan in consultation with Mr Wahid and suspect Rahat Hussain issued letters for hiring of consultants, which included the letter to M/s KASB represented by suspect Khaqan Saadullah.

According to the investigations, the matter was placed before the Board of Directors (BoD) meeting held on April 25, 2012. The board “in principle approved submission of bid for acquisition of MND assets in Pakistan and Yemen. The bid value (was) to be approved in a separate meeting called specially for this purpose”, the reference mentioned.

It further mentioned that Mr Saadullah, being the financial adviser, on May 13 shared an evaluation report with Mr Khan and Mr Wahid wherein he declared the value of the MND assets as $50.6m in low case and $73.4m in high case, it added.

The investigation revealed that the last date for submission of the bid was May 18 and Mr Khan allegedly maliciously called the BoD meeting on May 17.

It was further established that just one day before the BoD meeting suspect Saadullah in alleged connivance and collusion with Mr Khan, Mr Wahid and Mr Hussain furnished the second evaluation report-cum-presentation dated May 16 and shared the same with them in violation of the rules and law.

The watchdog alleged that Mr Khan in collusion with Mr Wahid, Mr Hussain and Mr Saadullah maliciously and deliberately avoided/failed to get it vetted from the chief finance officer of the PPL or its finance committee or team, but directly placed it before the BoD.

Through the said report, Mr Saadullah illegally declared the value of the assets as $164.88m dollars in low case and $178.092m in the high case, thus he in alleged collusion with Mr Khan added unprecedented several new components with sheer intention to increase the amount of the assets, it alleged.

The investigations further revealed that Mr Saadullah in collusion with Mr Khan and Mr Wahid amended the evaluation-cum-report repeatedly and added the values of weightages, market multiples and added the new component of ‘upside potential’.

Mr Saadullah allegedly amended the same on the behest of Mr Khan and Mr Wahid with sheer intention of presenting the fictitious figure to provide financial gain to Mr Marek, the reference mentioned.

The investigations revealed that BoD’s May 17 meeting was held under the chairmanship of Hidayatullah Pirzada (late) and attended by permanent board members and Mr Wahid, Mr Hussain, Mr Saadullah and Moiz Raza Khan, as visiting members.

Mr Saadullah presented his evaluation report at the meeting. The PPL’s managing director submitted notes for the directors and also replied to the queries of board members and also supported Saadullah, the reference alleged.

At the end the MD in alleged connivance of the suspects — Mr Wahid, Mr Hussain and Moiz Raza Khan — succeeded in getting unanimous decision in favour of Mr Marek and the board further increased the bid from $176.01m to $180m, the reference added.

The watchdog alleged that in active connivance with each other the mentioned officers of the PPL and Mr Marek caused losses to the national exchequer and consequently acquired assets at exorbitant and fictitious rates, making a primary loss of $67.2m as a difference in evaluation and $53.9m as post-acquisition operational losses. Thus a total loss of $121.6m was caused to the state exchequer.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2020