PESHAWAR: Leader of a political party on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court against the federal government’s recent move to transfer the administrative control of five regulatory bodies from the Cabinet Division to the respective ministries, and to deregulate CNG price.

Pakistan Justice and Democratic Party organiser Haji Lal Mohammad filed a petition with the court challenging a federal government notification of Dec 19, 2016, through which the administrative control of the regulatory bodies was transferred to the respective ministries.

He also challenged the decision of the deregulation of the CNG price by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and thus, ending the role of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for the fixation of that price.

The petitioner requested the court to declare the Dec 19 notification on the matter unlawful, a violation of the constitutional provisions, and without legal effect.

Political party leader also seeks order against CNG price’s deregulation

He further prayed the court that the notification allowing the CNG retailers to fix their selling prices instead of Ogra may also be declared unconstitutional.

The petitioner has requested the court that as an interim relief till the final disposal of the writ petition, the two impugned notifications may be suspended.

According to the Dec 19 notification, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) was placed under the control of the Water and Power division, Ogra under the Petroleum and Natural Resources division, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) under the Information Technology and Telecom division, and the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) under the Finance Division.

In the petition filed through senior advocate Noor Alam Khan, the respondents are Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through the chief secretary, principal secretary to prime minister, Federation of Pakistan through Cabinet Division secretary, petroleum and natural resources secretary, information technology secretary, water and power secretary, finance secretary, Nepra through its chairman, Ogra through its chairperson, PTA through its chairman, All Pakistan CNG Association, Council of Common Interest through its coordinator, and others.

The petitioner said the said regulatory bodies were established to promote fair competition and investment in their respective fields and protect the public interest and rights of the consumers and were meant to be autonomous and free from political interference.

He said under Article 153 of the Constitution, the Council of Common Interest was established and that Article 154(1) provided that the council shall formulate and regulate policies in relation to matters in Part II of the Federal Legislative List and shall exercise supervision and control over related institutions.

The petitioner said under Part II of the Federal Legislative List, matters on gas, petroleum and electricity were to be controlled and regulated by the CCI and it also clearly explained the control and supervision of the regulatory bodies concerned.

He added that the List stated that all regulatory authorities established under a federal law shall be in the domain of the CCI in relation to formulation of their policies and exercise of control and supervision thereof.

The petitioner said the constitutional mandate had been clearly violated through the Cabinet Division’s notification to give the statutory regulatory bodies under the control of ministries.

The petitioner claimed that once having taken direct control of Ogra, the government through ministry of petroleum had also allowed the CNG stations and retailers to fix own prices rather than fixing of prices by the regulatory body. He feared the same would be the case for electricity, domestic gas supplies and telephone services leaving consumers at the mercy of big business concerns and multinational companies, which would make undue and unjustified profit without being accountable to the relevant regulators.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2017