PAKISTAN

 ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry remarked that if the LNG import contract procedure were transparent it would not have come to the Supreme Court.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ejaz Ahmed and Justice Ghulam Rabbani resumed hearing on a suo motu case.

The bench during course of hearing repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction over the procedural mechanism adopted during award of contract.

S.M. Zafar, counsel for ministry of petroleum, said that all concerned parties were worried after due to appearance of the secret documents.

'This is not good governance,' CJ observed.

Then the hearing was adjourned till Monday.

The bench is seized with hearing of a suo motu notice on a news item in which it had been claimed that top officials in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources had awarded a multi-billion dollar contract for 3.5 million tons LNG import to a French firm after ignoring the lowest bid jointly offered by the Fauji Foundation and the Vitol.