OffIcIAlS fAIled To AleRT govT: RePoRT
islamabad — Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced immediate removal of the managing directors of Sui Southern and Sui Northern Gas companies.
In a tweet, the minister said in recent days, the people faced severe crisis of gas and the prime minister had constituted a committee for determining the responsibility of the gas crisis. He said the report of the inquiry committee was presented to the prime minister on Tuesday.
He said in view of the said report, the prime minister announced immediate removal of the managing directors of Sui Southern and Sui Northern gas companies.
Industrial activities in Sindh and Punjab came to a standstill on December 12 on account of gas crisis. The prime minister had convened a meeting on December 12 and ordered the authorities to probe and fix the responsibilities for the gas crisis, a media report said.
The Petroleum Division on the same day constituted a four-member fact-finding committee headed > Action had been taken in light of report submitted by a committee formed to look into recent gas crisis.
> The report held the MDs of the SSGC and SNGPL responsible for the crisis.
> Industrial activities in Sindh and Punjab came to a standstill
by Ogra chief Uzma Adil. Qazi Saleem Siddiqui, DG(PC), Shahid Yousaf DG(Gas) and Imran Ahmad, DG(LG) were its members. The petroleum secretary submitted the report to the prime minister with his own recommendations some days back, holding the managing directors of gas companies responsible for the gas crisis.
The prime minister took the action and removed SNGPL MD Amjad Latif and SSGC MD Mohammed Amin Rajput from their posts with immediate effect.
Last month, Prime Minister Imran had ordered an inquiry into the dwindling supply of gas which not only forced industry closures across on December 12 on account of gas crisis.
> An inquiry was ordered against two officials for not informing govt about possible shortages.
> SngPl and SSgc failed to inform the govt about faults.
> Both Mds have been accused of negligence.
Keeping in view inquiry committee’s findings, the prime minister has announced that the heads of Sui Northern and Sui Southern be removed from their posts immediately
Fawad Chaudhry,
information minister
Punjab and Karachi, but even affected domestic consumers as residents in many parts faced outages.
He summoned Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan who told him about the SNGPL and SSGC’s concealment of information from the government pertinent to a fault faced by some of the gas compressors.
According to the petroleum minister, a drop in gas production in the south fields of Kunnar Pasakhi and Gambat caused problems in Karachi, and faults in gas compressors at Nawabshah and Saran created shortages in the north.
“SNGPL did not report gas demand and supply shortfall in December accurately to the government, and SSGCL failed to inform the government about faults in the compressors in a timely manner,” a statement issued by the PM Office said.
“The specific allegations against the managing directors of SNGPL and SSGCL include negligence in reporting of facts to the ministry or incompetence to deal with operational issues, withholding of information from the government and overall systematic governance failure of SNGPL and SSGCL,” according to a notification issued by the petroleum division. —