Controversy: Cabinet secretary takes over as OGRA acting chairman

Court issues notice to govt for sending regulator’s chairman on forced leave.

ISLAMABAD: At a time when the government has given control of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to the cabinet’s top officials, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has served notices on the federal government for sending Ogra Chairman Saeed Khan on forced leave for three months.

The government on Tuesday took over control of Ogra by appointing Cabinet Secretary Babar Yaqoob as the regulator’s acting chairman and Additional Secretary Pervez Khusroo as Member Oil to complete the quorum.

Ogra comprises a chairman and members of oil, gas and finance. At present, it has only one permanent member gas and, therefore, the government has given the acting chairman’s role and member oil to the cabinet’s top officials. The seat of member oil had been vacant for several months.



Multilateral donors have been urging Islamabad to make regulatory bodies autonomous, but now the Ogra administration has gone into the hands of the federal government.

The IHC, in response to a petition of Ogra chairman, sent notices to the secretaries of cabinet, establishment, petroleum and acting chairman of Ogra.

The court has set the date of February 26 for hearings in the case. On February 11, the government had sent Ogra Chairman Saeed Khan on forced leave following the petrol crisis in Punjab.

In the petition, Khan pleaded that the Ogra ordinance had no provision to send the regulator’s chief on forced leave. However, he said the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) had powers to conduct a probe and the government could take action only after an investigation by the FPSC.

He challenged the notification issued by the federal government to send him on forced leave, pleading that the notification was not in line with provisions of the Ogra ordinance.

The controversy had erupted following the petrol crisis, when a committee, headed by Petroleum Ministry Adviser Zahid Muzaffar, blamed Ogra for not ensuring fuel stocks with the oil marketing companies (OMCs).

The committee said it was Ogra’s responsibility to ensure that the oil companies maintained reserves for 20 days.

The Ogra chairman, on the other hand, held the petroleum ministry responsible and said the regulator was only responsible for ensuring that the 20-day storage infrastructure was built, not for the maintenance of inventory.

Khan pointed out that it is the petroleum ministry’s director general oil, who meets the oil companies every month to review the state of their inventory.

The secretary petroleum, additional secretary petroleum, director general oil, managing director of PSO and the top brass of the company have been suspended following the petrol shortage.

In December, PSO had warned of the looming oil crisis due to non-payment of dues by the power sector but Finance Minister Ishaq Dar intervened to prevent PSO from buying US dollars from the currency market to make payments to international suppliers.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2015.

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