Pakistan LNG board accepts CEO’s resignation

NAB was conducting probe into Adnan Gilani’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: The board of directors of Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) on Thursday accepted the resignation of its chief executive officer Adnan Gilani with immediate effect.

The PLL board had called an emergency meeting to show the door to the CEO/managing director of the company after Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice in the wake of anti-corruption watchdog’s probe into his appointment.

Sources told The Express Tribune that the cabinet, in a meeting held on Tuesday and chaired by PM Imran, took up the matter of reforms in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). During the discussion, a key cabinet member - Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda - brought to fore the investigation being conducted by NAB into the hiring of Gilani.

PLL was being headed by such a person whose appointment was being investigated by NAB, the minister remarked, adding that action should be taken against such hiring, which was a matter of concern. According to sources, earlier a NAB team visited the Petroleum Division and took all record relating to Gilani’s appointment into its custody. He had been dealing with the liquefied natural gas (LNG) business since his appointment during the tenure of previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government.

The NAB team confiscated the record along with with all correspondences, noting sheets and working papers prepared for short-listing applicants for the PLL CEO post. It also took away the record about whether the relevant ministry or board of directors verified educational and experience documents submitted by the applicants.

Vawda told the cabinet meeting that Gilani was the blue-eyed boy of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. “How such a person is sitting as the PLL MD in our government,” he asked.

Vawda also pointed to the arrest of former Pakistan State Oil (PSO) MD Sheikh Imranul Haq by NAB in the LNG case. He revealed that CEOs of three multinational companies had met him, arguing that Sheikh was a clean person.

Other cabinet members - Commerce Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood and Minister for Federal Education and Technical Training Shafqat Mahmood - also backed the argument.

According to sources, the prime minister took notice of Gilani’s appointment after Vawda raised the matter. Consequently, the PLL board, in its meeting with a one-point agenda, accepted Gilani’s resignation.

“Yes, the PLL board has accepted the CEO’s resignation,” confirmed a spokesperson for the Petroleum Division. PLL said the other day that Gilani’s resignation was due to reasons unrelated to any NAB investigation.

“Gilani applied for the PLL post through an open, competitive and international advertisement by the ministry as per proper procedure,” PLL said in a statement.

It pointed out that any document requested over a period of seven to eight months has been immediately provided to NAB.

In the meantime, the Petroleum Division removed Qazi Saleem from the post of director-general petroleum concession. He was going to retire in January next year and had applied for the post of executive director.

According to sources, the Petroleum Division had sought clearance of all candidates including Saleem, who had applied for the post of executive director petroleum.

Saleem had also been on the board of directors of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines and Sui Southern Gas Company for the past 10 years. He was appointed recently on the board of Pakistan Petroleum Limited as well. However, the government has removed him from the boards of these companies.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2019.

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