ISLAMABAD, June 8: A division bench of Lahore High Court on Thursday dismissed three separate writ petitions filed by some senior Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) officers against their trial by the accountability courts.

These officers included Jaffar Mohmand, Naseer Ahmad, Shahid, Raheel Qureshi, Khalid Rahim, Najmul Hassan, Muhammad Ishaq, Manzurul Hassan, Khalid Subhani and others.

They were booked by the accountability courts for causing a loss of $95 million to the national exchequer. The references against them are in the last stages of decision.

On Thursday, senior public prosecutor of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Abdul Baseer Qureshi told the Lahore High Court that the accused were senior officers of Oil and Gas Development Corporation and they had auctioned off contracts at double the market rates in total disregard for the international tendering rules, thus causing a huge loss to the national exchequer.

He told the court that the executive director procurement and sales, Jaffar Mohmand, was chairman of the tendering committee, who in connivance with other members of the committee and officers awarded a contract of gas extraction (Uch Power Project) to a company at $31.1 million instead of $16 million thus causing a loss of $15 million to the national exchequer.

Instead of following the international tendering rules, they floated gallop tender and awarded the contract without approval of the Oil and Gas Development Corporation, MR Qureshi pleaded.

The then secretary petroleum, Capt (r) Naseer Ahmad and director-general petroleum, Shahid Ahmad, were also involved in this financial fraud.

Similarly, the same accused auctioned off another contract of Gas Gathering Facility through gallop tender in violation of the set rules and regulations, he said.

This contract was awarded at $92 million causing a loss of $44 to the national kitty, the prosecutor argued.

Another project of Gas Transportation Pipeline from Uch Power Plant to Dera Murad Jamali was also contracted out to Clough Engineering at $67.20 million, the prosecutor disclosed. In this contract, a loss of $36 million was caused to the department.

The National Accountability Bureau prosecutor told the court that the trial against the accused was in the final stages with the accountability courts. Evidence has been recorded and lawyers arguments will come up soon, he said. He pleaded that according to the Supreme Court decisions, a case could not be dismissed when it was in the final stages of decision.

The petitioners counsel, Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb, contended that references against his clients were baseless, as they had not awarded contracts but only recommended them.