ISLAMABAD: A petition filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) has revealed that a number of military officers had been dismissed for running an illegal crude oil business that caused a loss of Rs20 million per day to the national exchequer.

According to documents attached with a petition filed by former Major Akram Raza of the National Logistics Cell (NLC), 17 individuals, including two lieutenant colonels, three majors, six soldiers of varying ranks and four civilians, were among those found guilty of embezzling oil and dismissed by military authorities accordingly on January 26, 2005 on account of running an “illegal crude oil business”.

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One of the officers dismissed over the scandal, Maj Raza recently filed a petition before the LHC claiming that he was not part of the gang that was dismissed, but had in fact been the whistleblower who called attention to the theft and illegal sale of crude oil, and claims that he was arrested and detained for no reason.

The petition alleges that Major Raza briefed the then-NLC director general Major General Khalid Zaheer Akhtar about the presence of the crude oil mafia and told him about massive embezzlement in the purchase of 100 Hino buses, but ended up being placed under arrest and detained.

Maj Raza demands back pay and damages

Gen Akhtar was one of three NLC general officers who were found guilty of involvement in the NLC scam.

A formal inquiry report on that scandal concluded that five ex-NLC employees — three retired generals and two civilians — were responsible for the decisions that led to losses incurred by the NLC between 2004 and 2008. These five men included Lt-Gen Khalid Munir Khan and Lt-Gen Mohammad Afzal Muzzafar — who served as officers in-charge in the NLC from January 2005 to June 2005 and from June 2005 to October 2008, respectively — NLC DG Maj-Gen Akhtar (July 2002 to January 2008), NLC Director Finance and Accounts Najibur Rehman (October 2002 to April 2007) and NLC Chief Finance Officer Saeedur Rehman (June 2004 to October 2008).

Initially, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) began proceedings against the accused officers, but in February 2011, when then-army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ordered an inquiry into the matter. However, the case was simply transferred to military authorities and an outcome is still awaited.

The petition filed by Maj Raza alleges that “while performing the duties, the petitioner unearthed a group which used to bring crude oil from the oil field and instead of transporting it to a refinery, it was disposed off en route”.

The petitioner claimed: “Staff working at the oil field, the management of the refinery, [hired NLC transport contractors] and NLC officials were involved in the scam.”

In the petition, the former major claimed he registered an FIR against the people involved in the scam, but, “the NLC administration kept on pressurising the petitioner to cooperate with the crude oil mafia and on his refusal, the petitioner was threatened [with] dire consequences”.

The petition claims that the continuous detention and torture in custody led Maj Raza to a psychological breakdown. Military authorities fined him Rs0.29 million and he was only released after his brother Shafqat Raza paid the amount.

Through the petition, the former major seeks his two years back pay and the amount that he paid as a fine, which he claimed military authorities forcibly recovered from him.

After hearing preliminary arguments in this matter, the court issued notices to the respondents — the secretary defence, secretary planning and development division and NLC director general — and adjourned the hearing until a date to be fixed by the registrar’s office.

Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015

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