PESHAWAR: Two petroleum dealers have moved the Peshawar High Court seeking orders for the Federal Investigation Agencyto conduct the ongoing inquiry fairly into the last year’s fuel crisis without involving its two officers,who were part of an earlier probe as well.

Syed Abid Shah and Qaiser Khan jointly filed a petition requesting the court to set aside a letter issued by the additional director general of FIA (North) on June 8, 2021, to associate himself and another officer with the ongoing inquiry into the shortage of petroleum products.

They claimed that after the inquiry commission submitted its report last year, the federal cabinet tasked the FIA with holding another inquiry to unearth the ‘evidence of criminal act or intent behind the petroleum products shortage’ within 90 days.

The petitioners, however, claimed that additional DG of the FIA Abu Bakar Khudabakhsh and deputy director Sajid Akram, who were part of that inquiry commission, associated themselves with the new inquiry as well.

Petroleum dealers also seek removal of two officers from inquiry panel

They said that act of the two officers would be biased, irrational and unreasonable as they had already formed their opinion about the issue for being part of the earlier probe.

The respondents in the petition are the federal government through the interior secretary, FIA through its director general, and those two FIA officers.

The petitioners, whose lawyers are Abdul Lateef Afridi and Gohar Ali Khan, also requested the court to grant them an interim relief by restraining the two officers from associating themselves with the inquiry until the final disposal of the petition.

They said in June last year, an acute shortage of petroleum products was reported across the country allegedly due to the hoarding of petroleum products by oil marketing companies (OMCs).

The petitioners said the federal government later constituted an inquiry commission through a notification having 12 terms of reference (ToRs).

They said additional DG of the FIA, was notified as the inquiry commission’s chairman, while Sajid Akram was nominated by the FIA DG as its member.

The petitioners said the commission prepared a report on the issue on Dec 1, 2020, which was made public by the federal government.

They claimed that the report had legal and factual flaws.

The petitioners said as the said inquiry report had become a subject of concern for citizens, they had filed a petition against the commission over it and the high court had issued notices to the respondents in Dec 2020.

They said the federal cabinet had constituted a committee headed by the minister for planning and development on Dec 15, 2020, to recommend administrative and policy actions to be taken on the last year’s fuel crisis in light of the inquiry commission’s report.

The petitioners said the committee had recommended in its report that an inquiry be conducted by the FIA to unearth evidence or proof of criminal act or intent within 90 days.

They added that the report of the committee was approved by the federal cabinet on April 1, 2021, and thereafter, the FIA was supposed to conduct a fair and impartial inquiry into the shortage of petroleum products.

The petitioners said the FIA constituted an inquiry team but its two officers in question associated themselves with the inquiry and began issuing directives.

They contended that the inquiry would be impartial and fair only if it was conducted by the FIA without involvement of those officers.

Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2021