PESHAWAR, June 19: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday served notices on the attorney-general of Pakistan and the NWFP advocate-general in a writ petition seeking supply of natural gas to Kohat, Karak and other parts of the NWFP from the gas wells in the province.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Saleem Khan directed four respondents — secretary to the ministry of petroleum and natural resources, NWFP chief secretary, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas Company in Karak — to file comments on the petition.

The bench was hearing a writ petition filed by Kohat district nazim Gohar Saifullah and 20 union council nazims, seeking directives from the high court to the federal government and other authorities for provision of natural gas to their respective areas and to other parts of the province on a priority basis.

Senior advocate Iftikhar Hussain Gillani has been representing the petitioners, but he could not turn up on Tuesday.

The bench observed that natural gas should be distributed evenly among different areas of the country. “If there is equal distribution of resources among the provinces, there will be no sense of deprivation among people of different regions,” observed Justice Dost Mohammad Khan.

Advocate M. Sardar Khan, appearing for the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, stated that the SNGPL was only a company and the government formulated policies regarding supply of gas to different areas. He added that the gas explored by the company was not enough for the entire country.

The petitioners have stated that there are three functioning oil and gas fields in Karak and Kohat districts — namely, Gurguri, Makori and Chanda —and the fourth one, Mella, was under development.

They said that under the Constitution, gas had to be supplied to the province in which it was discovered on a priority basis. “Article 158 of the Constitution states that the province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head, subject to the commitments and obligations as on the commencing day,” they added.

They stated that the projected output of the facilities was 382 million cubic feet per day against the total requirement of 295mcf in the province. The petitioners stated that under the Petroleum Exploration and Production Policy, read with the Petroleum Concessions Agreement 2001, the companies and the government had to provide gas to local people, undertake other social programmes in the region and give preference in jobs to local residents.

They added that the respondents should make arrangements for developing the required infrastructure. They claimed that the commercial supply to other provinces from the wells had started two years ago which was an injustice to the province as well as to the people of the area.