Supreme Court’s LPG quota decision lauded
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JJVL Clarifies
SC decision to ensure transparency in future deals, privatisation
The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday lauded the Supreme Court of Pakistan for its landmark decision on the LPG quota scam.
The decision declaring the LPG quota agreement between Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited by the Sui Southern Gas Company as illegal will go a long way in ensuring transparency in the future deals, it said.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hold all the benefices of the quota scam responsible and order regarding recoveries will have a discouraging effect on favouritism, fake investors, and it will make the upcoming privatization process transparent, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
He said that deal between SSGC and JJVL was result of collusion between LPG mafia and a former president that helped deprive masses and exchequer of tens of billions for over a decade.
The beneficiaries of the deal included elite, generals, federal ministers, top bureaucrats, lawyers, and politicians that must be brought to book, he added.
Such an action has become imperative to discourage the tendency of rulers to oblige friends and to mint money disregarding all the rules and regulations.
Dr Murtaza Mughal said that the upcoming deal between SSGC and Engro will remain transparent if the FIA and bureaucracy acted upon the directives of the court in the LPG quota case.
SSGC and Engro would sign a Rs 220 billion LNG supply deal within one and a half month which would reduce gas crisis and provide relief to the masses if transparency was ensured, he said.
Government as well as influential should now know that flouting rules to favour near and dear ones has become difficult in the presence of an independent judiciary.
