QALANDAR ALI KHAN, J.- M/S Cherat Cement Company Limited, Nowshera, petitioner, is seeking issuance of writ to declare refusal/delay on the part of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Federal Secretariat, Islamabad (respondent No.1) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (respondent No.4) in meeting solemn commitments to provide a gas connection and supply un- interrupted gas to the petitioner as illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable, discriminatory, malafide, without lawful authority and jurisdiction and violative of the Constitutional guarantees; and a direction to the respondents, particularly respondent No.4, to act in accordance with law and forthwith provide a gas connection and uninterrupted supply of natural gas to the petitioner.
2. The petitioner is having its Cement Manufacturing Unit at Lakarai, District Nowshera, and had applied to respondent No.4 for a connection and supply of natural gas in the year 1980, which was delayed on one or other pretext, despite promise and commitment of the respondents about provision of connection in due course of time. According to the petitioner, its consent to bear cost of pipeline, eventually estimated at Rs.128.299 million, was conveyed to the respondents in 2006, but the connection and supply was inordinately delay, on the pretext of shortage of gas supply; while in the meantime, a number of other Cement Manufacturing Companies, which applied for gas connection much after the petitioner, were provided gas connection during 2006- 2007. The petitioner pointed out that due to major discovery of natural gas in the year, 2007, the production of natural gas in the province of Khyer Pakhtoon Khwa exceeded the demand for its consumption.
3. The respondents resisted the petition on the ground that gas connection and supply was committed on "as and when available" basis, and after receipt of hundred percent cost of net work extension from the petitioner. The respondents claimed that gas demand supply position deteriorated rapidly for various reasons, relegating the Cement Sector to the lowest priority under natural gas Allocation and Management Policy, 2005. The respondents, however, admitted that gas production in Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa Province was more than the present gas demand in the province, adding that due to over, all net depletion of gas fields resulting in reduction in supply of SNGPL system, the existing gas demand having prior commitments in the other provinces of SNGPL system.
4. The offer and commitment on the part of the respondents to extend the facility of gas connection and supply to the Cement Manufacturing Unit of the petitioner at Lakarai, District Nowshera, is not disputed and even acceptance of demand to pay Rs.128.299 million in advance for laying down the pipeline is admitted. Therefore, the respondents had neither any reason or justification to refuse or delay supply of gas connection - to the Cement Manufacturing Unit of the petitioner. The plea of the respondents about depletion of gas fields resulting in relegation of cement sector to the lowest priority is hardly satisfactory, as the respondents have been supplying gas connection to Cement Manufacturing Companies in the year, 2006-2007, after application for gas connection by the petitioner in 1980. Besides, three Cement Companies in the Province of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa, five more Cement Companies outside the province of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa were supplied gas connection by the respondents while at the same time delayed gas connection to the Cement Manufacturing Unit of the petitioner on one or other pretext , which is simply beyond comprehension. The respondents resorted to indiscriminate supply of gas connection to Cement Manufacturing Unit outside the Province of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa, when the petitioner was desperately trying for gas connection and had even accepted demand of the respondent to pay a handsome amount of Rs.128.299 million in advance to the respondents for laying down the pipeline. This conduct on the part of respondents is clearly in violation of letter and spirit of the judgment of this court delivered in the case of Messrs Lucky Cement Limited through General Manager Vs. Federation through Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Islamabad and others (PLD 2011 Peshawar-57), laying down that under Article-158 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan,1973, the Province in which a well-head of natural gas was situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from the well- head. There is no dispute, rather admitted by the respondents1 that the province of Khyber Pakhtoon Khwa had surplus gas over and above its own consumption. In such a situation, the Cement Manufacturing Unit situated in the province should have had precedence over cement manufacturing units outside the province, but record speaks otherwise, as instead of giving precedence to the petitioner's cement manufacturing unit, the units in the other province were given precedence and the petitioner deprived of its legal and constitutional right.
5. The objection of laches on the part of petitioner so vehemently raised by learned counsel for the respondents is also bereft of force as not only denial of gas connection to the cement manufacturing unit is a continuing wrong but the