Islamabad, 21st December, 2021; 13th meeting of the Standing Committee on Energy (Petroleum Division) was held today at 02:00 Pm in the Committee Room No. 5, (2nd Floor) parliament House, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Junaid Akbar (MNA).
The Meeting started with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Afterwards, the Committee proceeded with agenda of the meeting.
The Committee confirmed minutes of its 12th meeting held on 27th August, 2021.
The Committee inquired from the OGRA chairman whether there is any political pressure on you regarding performing the official commitments; in response he clarified categorically that there is no any pressure over us and we are performing our duties as per rules and regulations. The Committee deferred the bill namely; The petroleum (Amendment) Bill,2021 (Govt Bill), as Ministry requested for further time to complete the consultation process with relevant stakeholders. The Committee; afterwards, asked from the Ministry regarding on going worsening Gas shortage and price hike in the petroleum products in the country. Committee briefed by the ministry that Karachi is facing very high amount of shortage in Gas supply as in the winter season Quetta city’s temperature reason demands more supply of Gas. Committee was told by the DG (Gas) that as a country we are lacking storage capacity, otherwise this issue could be tackled permanently. While answering to the committee regarding price hikes in petroleum products, petroleum division officials stated that due to international rise in the prices we are constrained to raise prices in Pakistan. The Committee on the issue of incomplete and unfinished schemes of legislators showed strong dissatisfaction over the answers given by the Ministry.
Honorable Members/MNA Junaid Akbar, Mr. Malik Anwar Taj, Mr. Noor Alam Khan, Choudhary Aamir Sultan Cheema, Choudhary Khalid Javed, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar, Mr. Javed Murtaza Abbasi, and Mr. Mahar Irshad Ahmed Khan attended the meeting.