15th meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Energy (Petroleum Division) was held today at 2:30 pm under the Chairmanship of Dr. Imran Khattak, MNA in the Constitution Room, Parliament House. The agenda of the meeting was circulated vide Notice No. F.9 (1)/2022-Com-I (Vol-I), dated 25th February, 2022.

At the commencement of proceedings, the Committee offered Sura-e- fatiha for the deceased who lost their lives in Peshawar bomb blast today.  

Thereafter, the Committee was briefed about the status of recommendations made by the Committee during its previous meetings. The Federal Secretary, Petroleum Division apprized the Committee that 8 employees from the SSGCL were terminated from service on administrative grounds to establish good governance and writ of the management.  However, the Committee expressed its displeasure for removal of employees and sought report from SSGCL to be presented in the next meeting. It was further informed that the SSGCL has nominated an officer of the rank of SGM as focal person to deal with the issues of MNAs regarding shortage of gas in their constituencies.  

The Committee was also brief about Weighted Average Cost of Gas (WACOG). As per the briefing, the WACOG model is meant for uniformity of pricing mechanism across the country. It will meet the deficiency in the OGRA law to determine consumer price of imported LNG.

Implementation status of the order passed by Islamabad High Court regarding promotion of employees in OGDCL was also discussed during the meeting. The Committee directed the OGDCL authorities to implement the recommendations/ decisions of Special Committee headed by the Defence Minister Mr. Pervez Khattak. The Pakistan Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority Bill, 2022” was also considered by the Committee. However, the Bill was deferred for further deliberations after having inputs from the stakeholders and especially the Provincial Energy Departments.

MNA’s Mr. Junaid Akber, Malik Anwar Taj, Mr. Shahid Ahmad, Nawabzada Shah Zain Bugti, Chaudhary Khalid Javed, Ch. Muhammad Barjees Tahir, Sardar Muhammad Irfan Dogar, Mr. Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Mr. Ghous Bux Khan Mahar attended the meeting. Besides, Secretary, Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) as well as other senior officers of Federal / Provincial Government were also present in the meeting.