LAHORE  - PR - Dewan Petroleum (Pvt.) Ltd. has refuted the allegations contained in a story published in the newspaper titled “NAB ‘fails’ to vacate restraining order”.
According to the company, the impression that was given through media by NAB a year ago was that the company, which supplies gas to government, committed corruption a) by getting Ogra to issue a notification to enhance the price of its gas from $2.8 per MMBTU to $3.9 per MMBTU and b) by receiving from the government an amount of around Rs 36 billion as a direct result of the price enhancement. But NAB, the company say, while giving the above defamatory impression, has never leveled the above allegation in writing, neither before the Supreme Court nor before the Islamabad High Court because it is simply not true. In fact, the facts of this case are so unique that there is not even a possibility of the company having committed corruption. 
According to the company, for the last five years, the company and the government have been in dispute over fixation of gas price, a dispute that continues todate and the company still believes that the price of gas that is receiving is far lower than what it is entitled to receive. 
The company says that its whole case can be summed up in one sentence: a) the higher price notification was issued by Ogra on the clear and specific direction of Hon’ble Islamabad High Court and b) the very day on which the notification was issued by Ogra, Hon’ble Supreme Court of Pakistan granted status order, upon which Ogra and the government stood restrained from making any payment based on the higher price notification, thus not a single rupee could be paid to the company based on the higher price.
The company claims that NAB officials are fully aware about both above facts and that is why they have never claimed in writing, whether in Honourable Supreme Court or before Islamabad High Court or even in its written notice to the company, that this is the amount that the company received because of enhancement in price of its gas.
Even today, if any reporter were to ask NAB officials whether Honourable Islamabad Court decided in favour of Dewan Petroleum and issued clear time-bound direction to Ogra to issue notification raising Dewan Petroleum’s gas price from US $ 2.8 per MMBTU to  $ 3.9 per MMBTU, the answer will be yes. And if they are asked whether Supreme Court stopped payment based on the higher price notification on the very day of its issuance, the answer will again be yes. Obviously, if they are then asked whether Dewan Petroleum was ever paid price of gas at the higher price notification rate, the answer will be no. 
NAB officials can talk off the record or through innuendos all they like. But if above questions are specifically asked ‘on record’, none of them will reply other than what has been stated above.
Certified copies of Hon’ble Islamabad High Court’s direction for issuance of notification for higher price and Hon’ble Supreme Court’s status quo order restraining any payment based on higher price notification are before the Hon’ble Islamabad High Court, leaving it no doubt that Dewan Petroleum Limited neither got the notification issued nor did it receive any money based on that higher price notification.
It was on the above bases that the Hon’ble Islamabad High Court stopped NAB from taking any adverse action against any official of DPL. The courts in Pakistan do not intervene in such serious matters unless prosecution agencies like NAB are acting in complete violation of law and without jurisdiction. Giving an impression that a High Court has given restraining orders without any merit is against the dignity and honour of the courts. According to the company, NAB has never denied in writing the above undisputed facts.
The stand that Dewan Petroleum has taken before Islamabad High Court is simply that because Hon’ble Supreme Court itself stopped Ogra, on the very day of issuance of notification, from paying any money to Dewan Petroleum at the higher rate, Dewan Petroleum could not have and did not receive any money at higher rate, because of which, NAB has no legal right to get involved in the ongoing gas price dispute between Dewan Petroleum and government of Pakistan.
According to the company, the only reason that NAB included DPL’s name in Ogra scam was on the pressure and direction of the previous government which was unhappy when Dewan Petroleum management refused to accede its financial demand.
While they can not openly acknowledge that they illegally defamed and harassed Dewan Petroleum on the pressure of previous government by including its name in Ogra scam, it is equally difficult for them to refute Dewan Petroleum’s simple assertion before Hon’ble Islamabad High Court because there, NAB officials have to state on affidavit that Dewan Petroleum did receive money based on higher price notification. When asked by reporters, NAB officials now cover their embarrassment by saying that their intervention ‘prevented’ loss of billions of rupees to the nation. This is not correct because it was Honourable Supreme Court’s three member bench headed by Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali that stayed payment based on higher price notification more than two years ago, far before NAB even got involved in this matter under the previous government pressure. 
The company says that all other allegations in the Ogra scam may be correct but Dewan Petroleum’s matter stands out as unique and completely devoid of any wrongdoing.
The company says that it appreciates NAB officials’ position and now that the previous government’s pressure on NAB has gone, immediately upon appointment of new NAB Chairman, it will approach NAB with a request to reexamine Dewan Petroleum’s situation and to clear its name on merit.”