Article 158, which was incorporated in the 1973 Constitution after discovery of natural gas in Balochistan, read, “The province with natural gas recourses shall have precedence over other parts of the Pakistan in meeting its requirements from the resources, subject to the commitments and obligations as on the commencing day.”
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June 20, 2007
Pakistan : Petition seeking end to gas supply to Punjab province

Petition seeking end to gas supply to Punjab: PHC seeks comments from government, OGDCL, SNGPL

By Akhtar Amin
www.dailytimes.com.pk/

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday sought written comments from the federal government, the Oil and Gas Development Company Ltd (OGDCL) and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) in a writ petition seeking discontinuation of gas supply to other provinces from Shakardara and Gorguri gas fields in Southern NWFP districts until gas was supplied to local people.

A PHC division bench, consisting of Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Salim Khan, also issued notices to Attorney General (AG) Makhdoom Ali Khan and NWFP Advocate General (AG) Pir Liaqat Shah to assist the court in the case. Kohat District Nazim Gohar Saifullah and 44 other local government representatives had moved a petition against the government for supplying natural gas from Shakardara gas fields in Kohat district and Gorguri gas fields in Karak district. They stated that according to Article 158 of the Constitution, gas should first be supplied to people of Kohat and Karak districts, and then to other parts of the country.

The SNGPL’s lawyer, Sardar Khan, told the court that the company should be exempted of the case, as the company was only supplying gas in accordance with government’s demands. He also contended that the fields’ production was 76 million cusec feet and it could not fulfil the province’s requirements.

Justice Dost Mohammad Khan observed that the government and the OGDCL should facilitate citizens, rather than creating further problems for them.

“If the government distributes resources more equitably, nobody will register any complaint against it. Today every province is protesting the unjust distribution of resources,” Justice Khan said. The court asked the federal government, the provincial government and the OGDCL to submit their written comments before the next hearing, otherwise their right of hearing would be forfeited. Earlier, the respondents had failed to submit their comments in the case.

In previous hearing of the case, Advocate Syed Iftikhar Gillani, who appeared on behalf of the petitioners, contended that the government was violating Article 158 of the Constitution. He said Article 158, which was incorporated in the 1973 Constitution after discovery of natural gas in Balochistan, read, “The province with natural gas recourses shall have precedence over other parts of the Pakistan in meeting its requirements from the resources, subject to the commitments and obligations as on the commencing day.”

The petitioners stated that under the law, the government should provide gas to the resource-rich districts first, and later to province’s other areas and other parts of the country.

They said the natural gas and oil produced from oilfields in NWFP were directly being supplied to other parts of the country and mostly to Kala Shakako factories in Lahore, while locals were deprived of the gas. They requested the court to stop the gas supply from the two districts till disposal of the petition. The petitioners’ lawyers had requested the bench to impose a Rs 500,000 fine on the federal government, OGDCL and SNGPL as they had failed to submit their comments in the case. There are three gas fields in Shakardara bordering Punjab’s Mianwali district, and gas from Shakardara is being supplied to other parts of the country. Similarly, gas is also supplied from Gorguri gas fields to other parts of the country. The petitioners said the federal government had inked an agreement with the NWFP government to provide gas to all areas of the two districts by December 2006, and then the rest of the province.