Senate committee lambasts gas company over irregular appointments
Committee seeks a detailed report from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd to clarify dubious nature of appointments.
ISLAMABAD:
A special committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum is seeking a detailed report from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) to clarify the dubious nature of appointments made in the company from 2007 onwards.
The committee met on Saturday in the parliament house to express its dissatisfaction over an earlier report submitted by SNGPL. They directed the concerned officials to come up with an “improved and complete” report by the committee’s next meeting on March 28.
The committee members said that the company had not followed the merit-and-quota system when recruiting people. The senators from the smaller provinces particularly resented SNGPL’s disregard for the quota specified for the smaller federating units in the constitution.
“This is sheer violation of the fundamental rights of the smaller provinces,” said Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti.
The members expressed not just annoyance but anger at being provided with an incomplete report, saying that it was a ploy by the company to misguide the parliament and hide its own failures or misdoings. They warned that serious action would be taken against SNPGL if it failed to satisfy them in the next meeting.
The committee members noted that some of the company advertisements mentioned that job applicants would be short-listed according to the rankings of their respective educational institutions. The committee was strict in directing the officials to scrap this condition while processing applications in the future.
“What authority do you have to rank educational institutions? You only want to give opportunities to candidates from the more developed provinces,” Bugti accused the officials.
He claimed that the majority of the appointed candidates held fake degrees and domiciles. He said this should not go unchecked.
On the non-privision of gas to industries during winter, Secretary Petroleum, Imtiaz Qazi, informed the committee that under an agreement in 1983, the SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Ltd were legally bound to provide gas to industries for only nine months and were under no obligation to ensure the provision of gas for three months in winter.
Senator Nayyar Bokhari, who was also the convener of the special committee, said such an agreement, if it exists, should be made public. He said the government and the gas companies had both earned bad names because the public remained unaware of this arrangement between the two parties.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2011.
A special committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum is seeking a detailed report from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd (SNGPL) to clarify the dubious nature of appointments made in the company from 2007 onwards.
The committee met on Saturday in the parliament house to express its dissatisfaction over an earlier report submitted by SNGPL. They directed the concerned officials to come up with an “improved and complete” report by the committee’s next meeting on March 28.
The committee members said that the company had not followed the merit-and-quota system when recruiting people. The senators from the smaller provinces particularly resented SNGPL’s disregard for the quota specified for the smaller federating units in the constitution.
“This is sheer violation of the fundamental rights of the smaller provinces,” said Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti.
The members expressed not just annoyance but anger at being provided with an incomplete report, saying that it was a ploy by the company to misguide the parliament and hide its own failures or misdoings. They warned that serious action would be taken against SNPGL if it failed to satisfy them in the next meeting.
The committee members noted that some of the company advertisements mentioned that job applicants would be short-listed according to the rankings of their respective educational institutions. The committee was strict in directing the officials to scrap this condition while processing applications in the future.
“What authority do you have to rank educational institutions? You only want to give opportunities to candidates from the more developed provinces,” Bugti accused the officials.
He claimed that the majority of the appointed candidates held fake degrees and domiciles. He said this should not go unchecked.
On the non-privision of gas to industries during winter, Secretary Petroleum, Imtiaz Qazi, informed the committee that under an agreement in 1983, the SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Ltd were legally bound to provide gas to industries for only nine months and were under no obligation to ensure the provision of gas for three months in winter.
Senator Nayyar Bokhari, who was also the convener of the special committee, said such an agreement, if it exists, should be made public. He said the government and the gas companies had both earned bad names because the public remained unaware of this arrangement between the two parties.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2011.