LAHORE: SNGPL teams on Thursday night raided two furnaces, one owned by a senior PPP leader and the other by the family of a PML-N MNA, and found plants were using the natural gas in an illegal manner, officials alleged.

The raiding teams confiscated five industrial meters on the two premises and sent them to the Central Meter Testing Shop of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, where these would be tested on Monday in the presence of the two leaders or their representatives.

“The company has come under tremendous pressure and the entire provincial leadership of the PPP spent the day in the company headquarters,” said an official of the company, who refused to be identified.

“In fact, President Asif Ali Zardari in the last briefing at the presidency had authorised the company to control theft cases and take action against all thieves regardless of their political position. That’s why the company picked one each from the either party and raided their factories and furnaces,” the official said, adding the company already had `credible information’ about the theft and warned the owners several times.

All the confiscated meters were industrial. The price of gas being stolen through meters belonging to the furnace of the PPP leader came to Rs50 million per month and that of the PML-N MNA’s family to Rs2.5 million, the official alleged.

The company tried many times in the past to check these meters but failed because it led to violence whenever the SNGPL employees went there to do the job, he said.

“They were stopped physically and violently,” the official alleged and added: “This time the company officials went there late into night and succeeded. The company has installed new meters and other equipment to gauge the exact quantum of consumption and slap detection bills.”

The SNGPL officials were tight-lipped and were not prepared to say anything on record. Repeated attempts to obtain an “official response failed and even the media and public relations department maintained they would only be able to comment when the company high officials authorised them” in writing to say anything.

“All record is with the office of the managing director of the company and no-one is allowed to have a look at it because of the sensitivity of the matter,” said an official belonging to the Lahore region.

Once raiding teams finished their job, even regional officers were told to stay away from the case and let the MD office handle it because it was the managing director who had been authorised by the minister and the presidency to take action, he said.