SNGPL chastised for delay in gas supply schemes

Legislators want swift completion of work in their constituencies.

ISLAMABAD: With gas crisis looming in upcoming winter, members of a parliamentary panel’s sub-committee have pressed the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) to complete gas supply schemes swiftly in their constituencies.

In a meeting of the sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources here on Tuesday, chaired by Jamshed Dasti, SNGPL – the gas distributor that covers Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – came under fire for its “failure to complete the gas supply schemes”.

The committee members asked SNGPL officers to complete the schemes on a fast track to ensure supply of gas to new towns and villages.

The committee also reviewed the process of recruitment in SNGPL, Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) and Pak Arab Refinery Company (Parco).

It recommended regularisation of contractual and daily wage employees and called for giving salaries to the staff before Eid.

Giving a briefing, OGDC Executive Director Basharat Mirza said the oil and gas explorer had hired 590 people on contract from February 2008 to September 2012. Of these, 353 had been regularised and remaining cases were under process.

“OGDC had a total strength of 10,297 employees, of which 246 were on contract and 2,884 were appointed on third party contract,” Mirza said.

The sub-committee chairman asked OGDC to strictly follow the quota policy in the appointment process and regularise all those employees who were working on third party contract.

Expressing annoyance over the absence of heads of state-run oil and gas companies, the committee warned that it would issue warrants for managing directors of the companies if they failed to attend the next meeting. It also sought explanation from the petroleum secretary about the absence of the heads of companies.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2012.