' NASIM SIKANDAR, J.---The petitioners claim to be in the process of establishing a petrol/CNG Station at Mouza Kadlathi, Tehsil and District Sheikhupura. After purchasing land for the CNG station they claim to have obtained no objection certificate from respondent No,2, D.C.O. Sheikhupura on 4-4-2007. Their application for supply of gas for CNG was allowed by the Sui Northern Gas pipelines Limited vide sanction letter dated 11-9-2007. After making the required payment of Rs,23,00,000 to the Company the petitioners imported JINXING CNG Compressor along with complete CNG station package from China. The consignment reached Pakistan in the last week of October, 2007.
2. In the completion of the involved formalities the petitioners applied for grant of licence to operate the CNG station. However, respondent No,1, Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority, Islamabad, through letter dated 25-2-2008 informed them that the Government of Pakistan has decided to hold up all new CNG licences. Therefore, their request for issuance of NOC was regretted. The refusal on the part of respondent No,1 to issue the licence/NOC is challenged mainly on the ground that the alleged ban was not operative in the case of the petitioners inasmuch as they had already imported the CNG machinery. The petitioners in that regard relies upon letter,' dated 6-2-2008 issued by the Directorate, General & Gas, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources to Chairman, Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority. The letter in extenso reads as under:-- "I am directed to refer to the decision at para-2 (xiii) issued vide Prime Minister's Secretariat U.O.
No,2 (2) DS (E-II-II)/2008, dated 16-1-2008 which is reproduced as under: -- "New CNG Licences in the pipelines to be held up. CNG connections should not be given except to those who have already imported CNG machines"
(Emphasis supplied)
2. OGRA is requested to take further necessary action accordingly under intimation to this office at an early date."
2. After hearing the learned counsel for the parties, I will not take long to hold that the respondent No,1 did not act justly and rightly to decline licence on the basis of the ban alleged to have been imposed by the Government of Pakistan. The underlined wording of the aforementioned letter clearly indicates that only new CNG station applications were to be held up in process and not those where the applicants had already imported CNG machines. The letter of concerned Ministry as re-reproduced above does not spell out any other condition, which the petitioners could B be said to have lacked. They have successfully demonstrated on record by filing copies of invoices that they had already imported complete CNG station packages in the last week of October, 2007 while the alleged ban was imposed quite subsequently. Accordingly the exception from holding in CNG licences in the pipelines in favour of those who had already imported the machinery being uncontroverted and the factum of import of CNG packages by the petitioner also being not disputed, this petition is allowed. The petitioners are held entitled to issuance of licence/NOC from respondent No, 1.