PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday summoned the federal petroleum secretary and Federal Investigation Agency regional director over a petition of Karak residents seeking cancellation of the licence of an international oil and gas exploration company over the alleged theft of crude oil.

Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali fixed Feb 2 for the next hearing into the joint petition of Mujahid Islam and 49 other residents of Banda Daud Shah tehsil.

The bench directed the petroleum secretary and FIA director to appear before it to respond to the claims made by petitioners.

The petitioners requested the court to declare that the people of Karak, Kohat and Hangu, whose properties and lands suffered damage and who faced health hazards and environmental degradation, are entitled to compensation by the provincial and federal governments.

Karak residents have sought cancellation of licence of exploration company

They also prayed the court to pronounce that the Federal Investigation Agency, law-enforcement agencies, federal and provincial revenue authorities, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, OGDCL, and federal and provincial anti-corruption bodies are involved in the oil and gas theft and other issues as they safeguard the interest of the exploration company.

Fazal Shah Mohmand and Moazzam Butt, lawyers for the petitioners, said that MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of the MOL Plc, had started operations in Pakistan after it was awarded an exploration licence and a petroleum concession agreement was made in Feb 1999.

They alleged that the company claimed to be producing 8,000 barrel per day (BPD) of oil in the licensed area, whereas an inquiry conducted by the FIA, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, had found huge discrepancies and corrupt practices in the operation of the company as the production was more than 30,000 BPD.

The lawyers claimed that the matter was also taken up by the National Assembly standing committee on petroleum few years ago.

They added that a meeting of the committee was also held with the representatives of all stakeholders, including district administration, police, FIA, NAB, ministry of petroleum, attending it and that the FIA had claimed that the relevant departments had not been providing them record so as to probe the issue further.

The counsel said the company pressured the government agencies forcing them to put the inquiry in cold storage. They requested the court to call inquiry records to know about the ‘illegal’ acts of the company.

The lawyers also said that all chemicals extracted from wells were dumped so carelessly that they spread around the whole exploration sites attached with Gurguri.

They added that the chemicals were poisonous and polluted water, which adversely affected people as well as wild life.

The counsel that the oil and gas pipelines had been laid by the company from Munzila-1 to Munzila-9 fields through the land of the local residents without obtaining NOC from the government.

They requested the court to declare that the petitioners and other inhabitants of Kohat division including districts of Kohat, Karak and Hangu have a fundamental right to life which included clean drinking water, safe environment, and safety to their lands and livestock.

The lawyers also sought the formation of a joint investigation team to probe the matter to identify the culpable people.

The company in its comments on the petition had denied the oil theft charge claiming that it had been exploring oil in line with the agreement made with the government.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2021