ISLAMABAD - Nine persons facing corruption references for their alleged involvement in a massive Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) scam have been barred from travelling out of the country.
According to Ministry of Interior, those whose names have been put on the Exit Control List (ECL) include Chief of AKD Securities, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi; former MD Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL), Rashid Lone; former SSGC MD Azeem Iqbal Siddiqui, Dewan Ziaur Rehman, SSGC MD Zubair Siddiqui, GM SSGC Syed Arsalan, Deputy MD Yousaf J Ansari, Ogra official Jawwad Jamil, members SSGC & SNGPL BoD Mirza Mehmood.
According to sources, the references against the two former prime ministers Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and the selection committee that had recommended the name of Tauqeer Sadiq as the Ogra chairman comprised nine pages while the reference that was filed in the Ogra corruption case comprised seven pages.
Besides the reference against the two former prime ministers, the NAB also filed a supplementary reference in the accountability court against stock broker Aqeel Karim Dhedhi and other co-accused in a mega corruption case of Rs82 billion in Ogra.
NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had signed the two references on last Thursday and subsequently the references were filed on Friday following the approval of the NAB Executive Board for the two references in the multi-billion Ogra scam.
After filing the references, the NAB also submitted a report to the Supreme Court on the multi-billion Ogra scam on the directives of the apex court. When contacted, the NAB Spokesman, Ramzan Sajid, confirmed that both the references had been filed in the accountability court after the signature of NAB Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry.
NAB Executive Board gave its approval for filing the two references on Wednesday.In the reference on the appointment of Tauqeer Sadiq as Ogra chairman, the accused persons include former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, former minister for water and power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (Chairman Selection Committee), Shaukat Durrani, Member Technical for selection process, Javed Nazir, Member selection committee from Ogra, Sikandar Hayat Mekan, ex-senior joint secretary Cabinet Division, and Tauqeer Sadiq (the beneficiary).
The supplementary reference in the Ogra corruption case was filed against the accused Tauqeer Sadiq, Mansoor Muzaffar, Mir Kamal Fareed Bijrani, Jawad Jamil, Dewan Zia ur Rehman Farooqi, Abdur Rashid Lone, Zohair Siddique, Azeem Iqbal Siddique, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, Syed Arsalan Iqbal, Mirza Mehmood Ahmed and Yousaf J Ansari.
The interim reference against the prime accused Tauqeer Sadiq in the multi-billion scam of Rs 82 billion had already been filed in the accountability court in November 2012.