CNG pricing: Apex court to issue verdict today

Justice Jawad S Khawaja, Khilji Arif Hussain reserved judgment till Friday.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court concluded its hearings on the case pertaining to the prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) on Thursday.

Hearing the case, a two-member bench, comprising Justice Jawad S Khawaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, reserved its judgment till Friday.

The bench observed that the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) should cancel the licences of CNG station owners who failed to submit audit reports and required conditions for the past five years.

Hafiz Idrees, the counsel for CNG station owners, said if the government fixed the price of CNG at Rs73 per kg, the CNG association was ready to end the strike.

“We will not issue any such directives for opening of the CNG stations or fixing prices as it will be an intervention in the jurisdiction of Ogra,” Justice Khawaja said during the proceedings on Thursday.

Secretary Petroleum Waqar Masood Khan informed the bench that a committee had been formed under the chairmanship of the federal law minister during a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC). Khan said the committee would review CNG prices and provide recommendations to Ogra.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 21^st, 2012.