Agencies/Islamabad

Pakistani investigators brought home the country’s fugitive former oil and gas chief from the United Arab Emirates yesterday to face allegations in an $850mn corruption case.
Tauqir Sadiq was arrested in Abu Dhabi in January on suspicion of amassing vast sums in kickbacks and commissions while head of Pakistan’s oil and gas regulatory authority between 2009 and 2011.
Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was implicated as he was water and power minister at the time of the alleged embezzlement. Sadiq fled Pakistan last year.
The Pakistani National Accountability Bureau in a statement said that a team of investigators which had gone to UAE had landed with Sadiq in Islamabad early yesterday.
“The accused is alleged to have granted illegal CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) licences on the basis of fake NOCs (certificates), recitation and re-location of CNG stations, illegal appointments, and misuse of authority,” the bureau said in a statement.
“His actions as chairman OGRA (Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority) are alleged to have benefited stock market tycoons at the expense of general public. He is accused of being involved in gas theft and leakage amounting to billions of rupees.”
On January 24, the Supreme Court had ordered a case to be registered against former prime minister Ashraf, former Interior Minister Rehman Malik and another member of then main ruling Pakistan People’s Party over Sadiq’s appointment in 2009 and absconding in 2012.
Appearing in the Islamabad court yesterday, Sadiq pleaded innocent before the bench, and accused authorities of mistreating him.
Sadiq claimed his life was in danger. “I should be granted access to legal counsel. NAB officials are threatening to break my bones and shoot me to death, pressurizing me into pleading guilty,” he claimed.
“There is still no chargesheet against me. All charges levelled against me are baseless,” he said in court.
The accountability bureau requested the court for a 14-day physical remand of the former Ogra
chairman, which was subsequently granted by the bench.
The bench also ordered a medical examination of Sadiq, who will be presented in court again on July 23.
Sadiq is accused of misusing authority, embezzling funds and causing Rs82bn (approximately $850mn) losses to the national exchequer by converting operating income (regular income) into non-operating income in violation of an agreement signed with the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, relocating several CNG stations, making illegal appointments, etc.
He fled abroad soon after the Supreme Court declared his appointment as Ogra chief illegal on Nov 25, 2012, and ordered NAB to arrest him.
Sadiq managed to leave the country although his name was on the exit control list.