Supreme Court of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has directed the Ministry of petroleum to file a complete record by April 14 regarding a 25 billion dollar Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) scam.

A three- member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Ch. Ijaz Ahmed, and Justice Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani gave the directives while hearing a suo moto case on Monday.

Senior journalist Rauf Klasra in a report had revealed that how top guns of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources awarded a multibillion dollars contract for 3.5 milion tons LNG import to a French firm after ignoring the lowest bid jointly offered by the Fauji Foundation and the Vitol.

Former Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen also filed a reply before the court saying that there was a clear lapse when the Fauji VITOL proposal was not shared with the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Managing Director Fauji Foundation Lt. Gen (retd) Hamid Rab Nawaz alleged that they were intentionally dropped from the bidding.

He said that earlier it was assured by the Ministry that Fauji Foundation would be considered in the bidding. He said that the contract was awarded to French firm on the pressure of Qatari high ups.

Secretary Finance informed the court that the Petroleum Ministry did not present all the details of the bidding before the ECC.

Chief Justice during the hearing observed that it looks as if Petroleum Ministry was not taking the matter seriously.

Senior journalist Rauf Klasra who unveiled the scandal requested the court to grant some time so that he could file some important documents in the court.