ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Monday, hearing the contempt of court case against former chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqir Sadiq, said that if Sadiq needs any relief he will have to appear before the apex court, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khwaja and Justice Tariq Parvez was hearing the case.

The Chief Justice inquired that despite Sadiq’s name on the exit control list (ECL) how he managed to travel to New York.

Chief Justice Chaudhry asked Advocate On record that how he was presenting credentials on behalf of an absconder. “If Sadiq left for New York 20 days ago how did he manage to sign on six days old credentials,” the chief justice further asked.

The apex court was informed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has been taken into the loop to investigate Sadiq’s exit from the country.

Earlier on August 7, The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had submitted a report to the apex court in which Tauqir Sadiq has been accused of causing a loss of Rs83 billion to the national exchequer.

But the bench had rejected the report because of the bureau’s failure to arrest the big fish roaming freely.

The court had ordered NAB chairman Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari to submit a concise report with his signature suggesting efforts to recover the Rs83 billion embezzled money and follow-up actions against the people involved.

Mr Sadiq is said to be a close relative of PPP’s Secretary General Senator Jahangir Badar.

On Nov 25 last year, the court had declared the appointment of Tauqir Sadiq as Ogra chairman illegal and ordered NAB to investigate corruption cases against him and submit its findings within 45 days.