National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Karachi has arrested five individuals belonging to different cities of Pakistan for their involvement in petroleum purchase scam. The entire scam caused an estimated loss of Rs. 63.687 billion to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and the national exchequer.
NAB Karachi disclosed that they conducted a series of raids in Karachi, Islamabad and Gilgit Baltistan to arrest the accused persons wanted in the petrol sale & purchase scam.
Here are the people who were arrested for their involvement in the scam:
According to the findings of NAB Karachi, the accused personnel awarded an illegal contract of crude oil supply worth Rs. 2.43 billion to Byco Pakistan Petroleum Ltd in 2008-09, against which no payment was received.
It was also prima facie established that the PSO management abused their authority in entering into an illegal contract of sale purchase of petroleum products with Byco Oil Pakistan Ltd (BOPL) in 2012 for the supply of petroleum products to PSO, whereas BOPL was in fact commissioned in 2013. As a result of the illegal agreement, substandard products were supplied to PSO which caused a loss of Rs. 60 billion to the national exchequer.
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It was also established prima facie during the course of investigation that in 2012, PSO’s management abused its authority by entering into another illegal agreement with Byco Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (BPPL) for the sale and purchase of petroleum products whereby PSO supplied superior quality imported products (HSD & Petrol) to BPPL at abnormally subsidized rates, thus causing loss to the national exchequer.
Three agreements were entered into by PSO with mala fide and illegal considerations of extending favors to blue eyed companies in petroleum business, and with the intention of personal illegal gains. The entire scam caused loss to the national exchequer to the tune of Rs. 63.687 billion.
The accused, who were arrested from Karachi, were produced before the Accountability Court on 12th July for physical remand. Akhter Zameer and Qaiser Iqbal were remanded in NAB custody for 13 days each, whereas Kamran Iftikhar Lari was remanded to judicial custody on medical grounds. The other accused personnel arrested from Gilgit Baltistan and Islamabad respectively will be produced on Monday after legal formalities of transit.