LAHORE:A special court on Tuesday extended interim bail of former chairperson of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Uzma Adil Khan, Muhammad Shahzad, Shakeel Naseem and others till January 29 in connection with a 2020 petrol scam that had hit the country in the first half of 2020.
Special Judge Central Ejaz Hassan Awan conducted the brief proceedings, wherein the accused appeared.
During Tuesday’s proceedings, the court ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to file a complete challan of the case after it noted that the agency had filed partial challan so far. The court adjourned further proceedings till January 29 while extending the interim bail of the accused.
The FIA Lahore had registered cases after the findings of the probe which was held to find out the causes of an artificial shortage of the petroleum products during the first half of 2020.
The cases were registered against some oil marketing companies, Ogra and Ministry of Energy officials.
The nominated accused in the FIRs include Uzma Adil Khan, Ogra former chairperson, Noor-ul-Haq, Ogra former member finance, Abdullah Malik, Ogra former member oil, Dr Shafi-ur-Rehman Afridi, Imran Ali Abro, Amir Naseem, Ogra former member gas, Askar Oil Services directors Sohail Nasim, Shakeel Nasim, M Shahzad Anjum, and Nadeem Butt.
FIA accused them for awarding petroleum marketing licences illegally, allowing illegal petrol import quota. Moreover, the oil marketing companies after getting the marketing licences established several illegal petrol pumps, which caused the loss of billions of rupees to the national kitty.