Privatisation drive: Court allows govt to go ahead with OGDCL bidding

K-P govt had challenged the centre’s decision to put 10% up for sale

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the federal government to continue the bidding process for the sale of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL). The court, however, maintained that the shares could not be transferred or sold until the pendency of this case.

A two-judge bench consisting of Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and Justice Gulzar Ahmad took up the federal government’s appeal against the Peshawar High Court’s October 3 interim order staying privatisation of OGDCL.



The bench has also issued notice to all respondents, including the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, and adjourned the matter until October 13.

During the hearing, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt argued before the bench that the privatisation of OGDCL was in the national interest.

The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP), as well as the Privatisation Commission (PC), had put 10 per cent or 322 million ordinary shares of the government in OGDCL on sale for international and domestic investors on Oct 3, 2013 and Jan 8-9, 2014, respectively. Before the decision, the PC’s board, on April 22, 2014, had even approved the appointment of a consortium consisting of Messrs Merrill Lynch International, Citigroup and KASB Bank to act as financial advisers for the sale.

But the decision was challenged by the K-P government before the PHC, and a division bench of the high court stayed the federal government’s decision on Oct 3.

Now, the federal government through a petition jointly submitted by the petroleum secretary, OGDCL and the PC, has asked the apex court to suspend the high court’s interim order.

The appeal deplored that the K-P government, while challenging the privatisation process, concealed important facts with mala fide intent and thus invoked the discretionary jurisdiction of the high court “with unclean hands”, especially when it was not an aggrieved party.

Therefore, it said, the K-P government was not entitled to any discretionary relief, highlighting that the provincial government was legally obliged to implead the federal government as a party, which it did not, in the first litigation before the high court. This was necessary since the original decision was made by the federal cabinet.

The appeal reminded the apex court that the constitutional change brought about by the 18th Amendment in Article 172 of the Constitution was prospective having no bearing upon the existing commitments and obligations. The constitutional provision suggests that any property without any rightful ownership of a property will vest in the government of the province where it is located, as well as the federal government.

Denying vehemently the allegations of corruption levelled by the K-P government, the federal government’s appeal pleaded that those allegations were pure questions of fact and could not be decided by the high court in the exercise of its constitutional jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution.

Earlier, K-P government stated before PHC that recent oil and gas discoveries in the province have made it one of the richest petroleum regions in the country, producing almost half of the entire indigenous oil production and 10 per cent of the total natural gas supplies.

The provincial government urged the court to restrain all the respondents from transferring, alienating or diminishing existing shareholding or giving effect to impugned sale, adding that the entire process of impugned sale may also be declared void ab-initio and ultra vires.

Accepting the plea of the provincial government, the PHC on October 3 directed the OGDCL, SECP and Privatisation Commission to file comments in response to the petition and adjourned hearing of the case till October 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2014.