Since the PTI government came into power, two managing directors had been fired from the SNGPL following failure to control the gas crisis. PHOTO: FILE
Since March, this will be the third attempt to advertise for the post of SNGPL's managing director.
Earlier, the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) had vetted advertisements to hire new managing directors of SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC). Both companies had given advertisements in March this year.
As many as 400 candidates had applied for the post of regular head of SNGPL. However, SNGPL dominated by private shareholders members had suddenly scrapped the process and gave another advertisement that resulted in blocking hundreds of candidates for the position.
In the new advertisement, SNGPL had introduced a condition of age 52 to 62 years. This resulted in blocking those candidates below age of 52 from applying for the post. Under this process, only six candidates qualified for the post.
Keeping the situation in view, the SNGPL board of directors, in a recent meeting, scrapped the process of hiring the managing director and decided to start a fresh process again.
"In his report, the head hunter, Sidat Hyder, had stated that the shortlisted candidates were weak. Moreover, he had only been able to recommend two names while a panel of three has to be placed before the government," said Petroleum Division spokesperson Sher Afgan.
In SNGPL, private shareholder members hold monopoly and they take decision in line with their vested interests. They do not even care for directions issued by the federal government. Earlier, the Petroleum Division had vetted a draft for advertising the post of SNGPL managing director.
The SSGC administration and board of directors followed the vetted draft but SNGPL issued advertisement first in line with guidelines of the Petroleum Division.
But sources said they scrapped the process later and issued a new advertisement and started the process of hiring a permanent managing director. However, that process has also been scrapped now and the board decided now to start fresh in line with the Petroleum Division's guidelines to attract more candidates.
"Now, SNGPL will follow the advertisement that had been vetted by the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) to hire a new managing director," a senior government official told The Express Tribune.
Since the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government came into power, two managing directors had been fired from the SNGPL following failure to control the gas crisis. The company had also been involved in overbilling the consumers and made billions in this regard. The overbilling had been made by applying pressure factor and as many as 3.2 million gas consumers were overcharged.
The government had assured the consumers of reimbursement of the overbilled amount but no recompense had been made so far due to monopoly of board members by private shareholders. These board members represented those business tycoons for whom the government had announced the GIDC amnesty scheme and later decided to withdraw it.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2019.
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