OGRA scam: ‘NAB charges against former SSGC heads questionable’

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has implicated top officials of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) scam, but the charges framed against them appear to be questionable. In the reference prepared by NAB, it was alleged that Zuhair Siddiqui and Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui as managing directors of SSGC had acted illegally by curtailing gas supply to private power and captive power plants from 2008 to 2010. However, evidences presented before the Accountability Court revealed an interesting fact that neither Zuhair nor Azeem were managing directors of SSGC between 2008 and 2010. Azeem was appointed managing director in 2011 whereas Zuhair took over in November 2012. The officials who had been managing directors of the company between 2008 and 2010 were not questioned at all by NAB and they were actually responsible for the illegal steps. Developments over the past two hearings revealed that the reference filed by NAB pointed to certain steps taken by the accused over the past several years, but the documents submitted as evidence along with the reference contradicted the allegations. The counsel for the accused argued that given the fact that neither of the two were managing directors during the period mentioned by NAB, the court could not frame charges against them. Another allegation against them was that as managing directors of SSGC, they granted compressed natural gas (CNG) licences, though there were restrictions placed by the government. Their counsel argued that this was perhaps the most absurd statement in the case since CNG licences could only be granted by the industry regulator, Ogra. “No employee of SSGC, whether he be the MD or not, has any authority to issue CNG licences,” he said. The counsel also pointed out that NAB had accused SSGC Secretary Yusuf Ansari of holding a power-of-attorney on behalf of the company and termed illegal such an act of delegating powers. However, he said high courts had entertained those petitions and there was no illegality in the company secretary holding the power-of-attorney on behalf of the board. Lastly, the counsel for the accused, SSGC Director and Supreme Court Advocate Mirza Mahmood Ahmad, submitted that NAB had accused him of appearing as counsel for the company in “sheer conflict of interest”. He said Ahmad represented Minto & Mirza law firm for SSGC before the Sindh High Court and quoted the law and memorandum and articles of association of SSGC, which expressly allows a director, or a firm in which the director is a partner, to render services for the company in which he is a director. The counsel also said payments were made to Ahmad’s law firm and not in his name. NAB was depending on key witness Anwar Ali Sahto, a former employee of SSGC who was fired in 2012 for threatening his colleagues, misusing SSGC’s resources, false payment receipts to the company and extorting money by blackmailing fellow colleagues. Published in The Express Tribune, May 25th, 2014.