Corruption cases: Credibility at stake

People with vested interests level baseless allegations against rivals

ISLAMABAD: What is happening in Pakistan is to arrest the accused and then let them prove innocent. Almost all anti-corruption watchdogs have lost their credibility as they are most of the time involved in harassment.

In the past, the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) was considered a very credible institution that solved many cases. But the appointment of staff allegedly on political considerations in the AGP and other such investigating agencies has hurt their image.

Some people with vested interests are in the habit of levelling allegations against their opponents by providing false and fake information to the anti-corruption bodies. Consequently, action is taken against the victims without investigating the character and background of the complainants.



Last year, two such people having vested interests – one of whom was removed from Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) for indulging in corruption and another retired with a grudge against management for not being appointed the managing director – tried to implicate four managing directors of SGGC in corruption cases by associating them with former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain.

Hussain is in the custody of law enforcement agencies for allegedly embezzling billions of rupees during his tenure.

The managing directors were accused of facilitating Hussain in indulging in corruption. One of the allegations was that they deprived Pakistan State Oil of nearly Rs20 billion a day or causing the stock market crash of 2008.

Investigations have been going on for the past 11 months but to date no concrete evidence has been found, therefore, investigating officials have now mild and timid references against the former petroleum minister.

The latest reference accuses Hussain of extending illegal favours to Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) for the extraction of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas liquids (NGL).

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) claims that LPG supply and sale agreements between Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and JJVL and between SSGC and JJVL lacked transparency and were executed in an illegal manner. The officials being implicated are JJVL CEO Iqbal Z Ahmed, three former managing directors of SSGC – Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, Zuhair Siddiqui and Shoaib Warsi, current Managing Director Khalid Rehman and OGDC officials.



Overlooked

However, some important facts have been overlooked in the investigations. The contract for Kunnar Pasakhi Deep field, which was awarded to JJVL, was reviewed and cleared by the Islamabad High Court in 2011 and SSGC considered this as a basis for all future contracts.

Both the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and NAB had conducted an investigation into the affairs of JJVL in the past as well, but could not unearth illegal activities pertaining to the extraction of LPG/NGL or gas theft.

On February 19, 2016, in response to a petition filed by JJVL, SSGC stated, “it has always acted in relation to the JJVL project in accordance with the law and all SSGC’s decisions were taken by the board of directors as is the case with all documents, including the memoranda of understanding. Such decisions are made by the board and not by the managing director.

“Consequently, Board Chairman Miftah Ismail and the directors are responsible for all the matters pertaining to JJVL but ironically Ismail or any of the directors have not been cited in the reference filed by NAB. Being the competent authority, they should be held responsible for the action taken by the company with regard to the JJVL issue and not the MD who is only authorised to implement the decision of the board.”

The statement clearly says all decisions were fully backed by the board of directors and were in accordance with the law.

The JJVL project, which started in 2012, was reviewed and approved by two separate SSGC boards comprising 14 members each. The first board was headed by then chairman Saleem Abbas Jilani whereas the current board is led by Miftah Ismail, who is also the Board of Investment Chairman.

The contracts were brought to the notice of both the boards on different occasions and approvals were granted without any objection.

The writer is a staff correspondent

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2016.

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