Analysts are questioning both decisions, arguing that it is not the job of the caretaker government to hire or sack anybody. PHOTO: FILE
The move comes just days before the nation will choose a new government for the next five years. It also comes on the heels of the removal of former PC deputy chairman Dr Nadeemul Haque, who was recently dismissed by the caretaker government.
PC spokesperson Asif Sheikh confirmed that a summary has been moved for a one-year extension in Sattar’s contract. To a question, Sheikh said it will be up to the caretaker government to decide whether it has the mandate to approve such summaries.
Analysts are questioning both decisions, arguing that it is not the job of the caretaker government to hire or sack anybody.
The member energy is responsible for providing advice on energy policy, and has an important role in the approval of new projects. He or she is also required to deal with international lending agencies to secure loans for the energy sector.
When contacted, a senior PC official could not provide a justification for seeking an extension in Sattar’s contract. Such justifications are usually provided to the decision-making authority when a government body recommends an extension in contract for an individual’s services.
Sattar has been serving in the PC for the last two years and is said to have played a controversial role on many occasions, particularly in the evaluation of technical and financial bids for a project under which 400 million cubic feet per day of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) were to be imported, sources said.
A number of questions had been raised on the role played by Sattar in the scrutiny of technical and financial bids for the import of LNG. Sattar was a member of a subcommittee of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet which worked on the LNG import project.
The subcommittee is said to have stepped beyond its mandate while discharging its duties. Sattar went to London to evaluate the technical bids for the project, submitted by three bidders on February 18 this year, as a member of the ECC subcommittee. He was then also present at the time of opening of financial bids earlier this month, revealed officials who were involved in the $46 billion transaction.
Immediately after evaluation of the bids submitted for the project, the then government had appointed Sattar as a director on the Board of Directors of the Sui Sothern Gas Company (SSGC). SSGC was one of the importers acting on behalf of the government.
Interactions with officials and bidders revealed that Sattar had allegedly tried to obtain information from one of the potential bidders regarding whether that company was bidding on the due date. Once the bids were submitted, he contacted another party to the transaction and pressed it to disclose its bid price. In London, even before the pre-bid conference, he told a party that the federal government had decided to technically qualify all three bids.
The subcommittee later declared that the lowest bid, submitted by Elengy, was noncompliant, clearing the way for Pakistan GasPort Limited to be awarded the contract. When the financial bids were first opened, Sattar had been the first one to demand that Elengy’s bid be declared noncompliant on grounds that the company had quoted two prices based on two separate formulas.
Elengy had used a Brent-based price, as required in the Request for Proposal for the contract, which had turned out to be the lowest at $17.618 per million British thermal units (MMBTU). It also quoted another price of roughly $16.56 per MMBTU, which was even lower than the Brent-based price. However, the second price was based on the Henry Hub formula, which was not considered by evaluators, yet nonetheless became a bone of contention.
After the press highlighted the government’s attempts to knock out the lowest bidder, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had taken suo motu notice and stopped the government from processing the deal.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 10th, 2013.
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