TOBA TEK SINGH/LAHORE: The owner of the Sitara Chemical Industries Limited (SCIL), Mian Muhammad Idrees, was stopped at the Lahore airport on Sunday after his name was placed in the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL) in connection with an alleged Rs11.9 billion electricity fraud case.

The PNIL is used to prevent individuals from travelling abroad during ongoing investigations.

A senior official said that Mian Idrees was reportedly stopped from boarding a flight by the immigration officials saying that his name had been placed in the PNIL following a case lodged against him. He said that the FIR was registered in the light of an inquiry carried out by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Faisalabad FIA.

The official said that the inquiry was conducted some years back, finalised and then sent to the FIA headquarters. He said that the inquiry file, however, had remained shelved for years. To a question, the senior FIA officer denied the arrest of Mian Idrees.

The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn, stated that at the conclusion of the inquiry it emerged that the Sitara Group of Industries, through its companies Sitara Energy Limited (SEL) and Sitara Chemical Industries Limited (SCIL), in active institutional collusion with Fesco management caused a loss to the tune of around Rs11.96 billion to the national exchequer in the sale and purchase of electricity from 2007 to 2015.

It stated that SEL was granted a power generation license in 2002 by Nepra primarily for self-consumption and was only allowed to sell surplus electricity to bulk power consumers (BPC), in which Fesco was not included. It claimed that in violation of the licensing conditions, SEL illegally entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Fesco in 2007 for a period of three years without any approval from Nepra.

Later, on Sept 03, 2010, the said PPA was also illegally renewed for one year without the permission of Nepra. The FIR claimed that even after the expiry of this agreement, Fesco continued to illegally purchase electricity until March, 2015. It claimed that the Sitara Group sold electricity to Fesco through SEL at a high rate per unit illegally, in violation of the approved rates of the central power purchasing agency (CPPA).

On the other hand, it claimed that during the same duration, the Sitara Group also purchased electricity from Fesco through SCIL at lower per unit price for illegal monetary gains. Mian Idrees did not respond to calls or messages despite repeated attempts.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026