Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued directives to dissolve the boards of directors of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL) following prevailing gas crisis in the country, sources said. A day after ordering a fact-finding committee headed by chairperson Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to launch an inquiry against the managing directors of SNGPL and SSGCL, the Petroleum Division decided to reshuffle the gas companies' boards of directors over alleged dissatisfied performance.

Disrupted gas supply was also reported in several residential and industrial areas across Karachi. Although the government claimed that domestic consumers would not be affected as special measures had been taken, the CNG stations, some industrial units and captive power plants are facing gas shortage.

Petroleum Division accused the two MDs of the gas companies of demonstrating negligence in reporting of facts to the ministry, their incompetence to deal with operational issues, withholding of information from the government and overall systematic governance failure in SNGPL and SSGCL.

Earlier, on December 1, 2018, the minister for petroleum stated that the government had decided to reconstitute the boards of directors (BoDs) of 14 state-run oil and gas companies on top of changing their chairmen and CEOs in the next 100 days. The previous government reconstituted their boards in 2017 and those appointments were political, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Minister for Petroleum said.

At present, the government has already reconstituted the boards of six companies including Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Pak-Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO), Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Government Holding (Private) Limited (GHPL), Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC), and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018