PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Saturday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking contempt proceedings against the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited’s chairperson and directors for allegedly violating its order to improve the pressure of natural gas supplied to domestic consumers in the province.

Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel filed the contempt petition saying the SNGPL officials have been blatantly violating the court’s Jan 1, 2021, order on gas supply and therefore, contempt proceedings should be initiated against them for punishment in accordance with the law.

He also requested the court to direct officials to implement its order in letter and spirit.

The respondents in the petition are SNGPL chairperson Roohi R Khan, chief executive officer Ali Javaid Hamdani and nine directors, including Afan Aziz, Ahmad Aqeel, Manzoor Ahmad, Mohammad Haroon, Mohammad Sualeh Ahmad Farooqi, Kamran Ali Afzal, Sajid Mehmood Qazi, Dr Sohail R Khan and Syed Akhtar Ali.

Insists PHC order for better gas pressure flouted

Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan of a single-member high court bench had directed the SNGPL on Jan 1 to improve the pressure of natural gas supplied to domestic consumers ensuring their protection from chilly weather and use for other domestic purposes.

The bench had issued the order on a petition of Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, who challenged the continuous gas outages in parts of Peshawar and requested the court to declare the denial of smooth gas supply to the province, especially its capital, illegal and unconstitutional.

The main petition was filed by the lawyer in 2019 saying KP produces natural gas more than its needs and under Article 158 of the Constitution, its needs should to be met before the additional gas is supplied to other provinces.

In late 2020, he filed an application in that petition seeking interim relief in the shape of gas supply to consumers during the current winter season.

Granting interim relief, the court had ordered that the respondents (SNGPL officials) improve gas pressure to make it convenient for consumers to protect themselves from cold and chilly winter months of Jan-March 2021 and for other domestic purposes.

In the contempt petition, Saifullah Kakakhel , who is known for public interest litigations, said the respondents were the responsible SNGPL officials, who took all major decisions of the company and were involved in the contempt of the high court.

He claimed that initially after the court’s order was issued, the respondents improved gas supply to Peshawar to some extent but over a week ago, the gas supply was suspended again to different localities.

Mr Kakakhel said public at large suffered due to gas loadshedding.

He claimed that while the SNGPL had been charging consumers exorbitant rates and taxes, it had miserably failed to maintain gas pressure or stop loadshedding in the province.

The petitioner contended that the respondents had willfully been disobeying the court’s order, so they should be prosecuted.

In the main petition, the petitioner has contended that under Article 158 of the Constitution, it was the right of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to receive natural gas supply on a priority basis as it had been producing natural gas more than its needs.

He added that the supply of natural gas was the right to life and it was mandatory for the government to provide it to the people.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2021