ISLAMABAD, May 22: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered three senior officials of Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) to surrender their passports and deposit surety bonds of Rs1 million each with its registrar.

A three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad, also directed the officers — Finance Controller Mehtab Hussain, Material Controller Hafiz Mohammad Aslam, and Project Coordinator Zahid Mukhtar — not to leave the country without prior permission.

The court passed these orders, while granting leave to appeal to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the acquittal of these officials by the Lahore High Court.

NAB counsel Advocate Tariq Azam Chaudhry argued that the bureau had filed a reference against the three officials on May 1, 2000 for purchasing Skud-mounted oil and gas separator in March 1998 at a cost of $245,946 from a contractor, Sadaqat Saeed Malik, whose previous company Darvesh Aldarvesh had been blacklisted by the OGDC.

Later, two different technical and evaluation committees declared the equipment as “rubbish” and not according to specifications mentioned in the tender notice.

He pleaded that there was incriminating evidence of corruption on record against the three officials who were involved in the project execution, but this evidence was not considered by the court.

Later, the same bench adjourned another NAB appeal against a local PML-N leader Chaudhry Tanvir Khan when Advocate Raja Bashir sought time to satisfy court’s query whether conversion of a residential building into a commercial plaza in the Rawalpindi cantonment area amounted to criminal liability and that incriminating evidence existed to prove that the accused flouted provisions of the Rawalpindi Cantonment Act.

Prima facie, its seems that there was no criminal liability on the accused except some fine or demolition of the commercial plaza, CJ said, adding that it was rather the criminal negligence on part of the board which did not bother to take action when the commercial plaza was being built.

Former vice-president of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board and member provincial assembly Punjab Chaudhry Tanvir Khan was convicted by the accountability court for allegedly misusing his office and converting a residential building into commercial plaza.

Later, the Lahore High Court acquitted him, against which NAB moved the apex court.