Supreme Court orders to arrest Tauqir Sadiq

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has issued orders to the authorities concerned to immediately arrest former chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Tauqir Sadiq and initiate proceedings against him in accordance with the laws of the land.

A three-member bench of the apex court with Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in the chair resumed the hearing pertaining to OGRA’s misconducts.

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Officials have informed the court that it had checked up on all possible addresses to locate Tauriq Sadiq but to no avail.

They further said that the former chairman was currently residing somewhere in Lahore and not in the United States.

The claimed, “Punjab Police is providing protection to Sadiq, who is said to be a close relative of PPP’s Secretary General Senator Jahangir Badar.”

In the course of hearing, Chief Justice Chaudhry said that the former chairman of the authority must be apprehended regardless of what connections he has.

He asked the authorities to initiate proceedings against Sadiq in accordance with the laws.

On the occasion, the NAB’s prosecutor told the court that a reference had been prepared against Sadiq which would be filed in two days’ time.

Chief Justice Iftikhar moreover said that the NAB’s mandate was to eliminate corruption, adding that, the court wanted the implementation of its orders at all costs.

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

Earlier, the NAB had submitted to the Supreme Court a report in which Sadiq had been accused of causing a loss of Rs83 billion to the national exchequer.

The report had alleged that Sadiq in collaboration with Member Gas Mansoor Muzaffar Ali and Member Finance Mir Kamal Marri had caused a loss of Rs44 billion to the national exchequer in the form of gas development surcharge.

According to the report, Sadiq had also increased the benchmark of un-accounted for gas (UFG) from 4.5 to seven per cent against the global practices without explaining the basis and rationale for it which resulted in irrational and unjustified benefits to gas companies.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Oct 2 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.