PHC puts federal, provincial govts on notice

Petroleum extraction

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued a notice to the oil producing companies to submit reply as to why petroleum products are not being properly extracted from fields in the Kohat district.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Daud Khan issued the notice to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company limited (KPOGCL) to submit the reply and report as what measures they had taken for extraction of petroleum products from agricultural fields of the Kohat district.

However, the bench termed the OGDCL reply as unsatisfactory and directed the additional attorney general (AAG), Manzoor Khalil, to ensure proper reply and submit report about the extraction of petroleum products from agricultural fields.

In the reply, the OGDCL had claimed that there were no petroleum products and fields were dry. The court issued the directives in a writ petition filed by more than dozen citizens including Muhammad Sadiq, residents of Umar Kot. He had prayed the court to restrain the Kohat district police from arresting the citizens for extracting petrol from their fields and selling it in the open market.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran, informed the bench that under the Petroleum Act, the police have no authority to stop and arrest the persons carrying petroleum products. He said such powers rested with the OGDCL and KPOGCL authorized officers who could take action against persons found involved in illegal extraction of the oil.

The lawyer submitted that the fields’ owners have already obtained No-Objection Certificate  or NOC from the industrial officer of the Kohat district administration. He said the petitioners were also paying Rs5,000 tax to the district administration in this respect.

Furthermore, he submitted, under sections 7 and 8 of the Petroleum Act, the petitioners were entitled to keeping 500 gallons of non-dangerous petrol and 6 gallon of dangerous petrol.The lawyer informed the bench that the District Police Officer (DPO) of Kohat in July 22, 2015 wrote a letter to Kohat deputy commissioner to take appropriate measures for taking control of the fields and in larger interest of the public and national exchequer as the life of the people was not only at stake in the area, but also it was grave loss to the exchequer. However, the lawyer said the Kohat deputy commissioner had not taken measures to safeguard the fields and take control of the precious petroleum products in the district.