SC accepts Asif’s plea in LPG quota case

KHUDAYAR MOHLA

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tues-day accepted the plea of PML-N leader and Federal Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Muhammad Asif by deleting 15 marketing companies’ names from his petition that had sought to review the grant of the Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) quota.

A three-member bench of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry resumed the hearing of a petition of Khwaja Muhammad Asif, seeking to review the grant of LPG quota by Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) and alleging that the bidding for the quota was not carried out in a transparent manner.

During proceedings, Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the bench that he had sent a letter to Ministry of Petroleum/OGDC to initiate an investigation against marketing companies to

whom LPG quota had been allowed.

He further submitted to delete the names of 15 marketing companies including Aftab Traders, Agha Gas, Balochistan Minerals, Bolan Gas, Cress LPG, Gas Man, Links International, Muhammadi Gas, Noor LPG, Petroleum Gas, Petrosin Gas, Power Gas,

Pro Gas, Ravi Gas and

Synergy Gas from the matter in hand.

He argued that all these companies were not party of the case so he had decided not to press the court against them, saying, “I am just

targeting the contract of JJVL”.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed there would be consequential impact if JJVL contract was declared void by the court to which Asif said that a snowball impact would be imminent by the court judgment.

The Chief Justice directed Asif to furnish a statement explaining that which portion of his petition would not be pressed by him in the current matter.

The court granted a hearing opportunity to the counsel for seven marketing companies who were present during the proceeding and postponed the case till Oct 10.