The Ministry of Law remains over $ 20 billion in its weapons

The Ministry of Law has denounced the Petroleum Ministry’s preference for the awarding of $ 20 billion LNG to the GDF-Suez transnational consortium.

Officials at the Ministry of Law issued the second consecutive legal opinion condemning the agreement favored by the Ministry of Petroleum. The stakes are high, as it appears from the fact that the lawyer SM Zafar has dealt with RS7 million to defend the Petroleum Ministry’s decision to assign the contract to the Franco-America consortium, GDF-Suez. This is an unusual precedent for every government institution.

The attempt to persuade members of the Financial Coordination (ECC) to support the opinion given by the partner of a private business to violate the objections of the Ministry of Law, whose order is to check the agreements before they are executed.

Frustrated by the verdict of the Ministry of Law, officials from the Petroleum Ministry believed that they won the Pakistan Attorney General Moulvi Anwarul Haq by their side, bypassing the ministry.

Ali Zafar, Sm Zafar’s son, was also paid millions of rupees in legal fees by Sui Southern Gas Corporation, a party in the SC case, to defend the controversial deal with his father. The agreement proved to be unacceptable when government officials confessed the irregularities committed during the contract.

The Ministry of Law reminders officials at the Petroleum Ministry on Harping on the 20 -year agreement for the last nine months and pointed out that the agreement would have been finalized so far that the ministry has regained the contract to secure transparency in accordance with the Supreme Court.

The US team Carlyle, known for its ties with former US President George Bush, is one of the interests of the $ 20 billion LNG deal. The news has made it virtually impossible to justify the agreement. The team was fined $ 20 million in New York in 2009 for bribery political and government officials to obtain $ 740 million pension fund agreement. Law Minister Dr Babar Awan was under enormous pressure from the government to force Naveed Qamar’s oil minister and leave his opposition to the official summary that constitutes the Franco-American consortium for the contract, sources say. In a new report, the law ministry was called upon to receive a second opinion in the light of the SM Zafar stance. He had written that the new summary sent to the ECC for the assignment of the contract to the GDF-Suez was in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court, according to official documents available with The Express Tribune. The French and American diplomats were set up together to prevent Dr. Babar Awan from curating a new offer.

The Ministry of Law, rejected the lawyer’s attitude and wrote that “there was no document available to record which could support the proposals made by the ministry, so with respect, the proposal of the Ministry of Petroleum and its natural resources is not confirmed by this. spirit of the spirit of the abstinence of Pprans.

The reports referred to between the two ministries ended after the conclusion of the Ministry of Law, concluded that “after taking into account all relevant documents provided by the referral department, there is no room for review or removal of this previous opinion”.

Posted on Express Tribune, January 2nd^nd2011.