ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: The government on Monday sent paramilitary forces to protect sensitive gas installations in the three provinces after the Sui gas pipeline was blown up for the second time within a week. The government also said it was ready to hold talks with tribal leaders to discuss all “unsettled issues.”
The moves follow Sunday’s rocketing of the gas pipeline in Mazari Goth only an hour after gas supplies to private and commercial consumers of the Punjab and North West Frontier provinces were restored following the Jan 20 rocket attack on the pipeline at Rajanpur.
An interior ministry spokesman, Iftikhar Ahmed, told Dawn that more than 2,000 members of civil armed forces, including Punjab Constabulary, Frontier Constabulary, Rangers and police, had been deployed at sensitive gas installations of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
“Gas installations in these provinces have been declared sensitive and security has been beefed up in their vicinity,” he said.
UNSETTLED ISSUES: Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Chaudhry Naurez Shakoor said in a statement on Monday the government was open to negotiate on “any unsettled issues” rather than allowing damage to oil and gas installations.
He was responding to statements issued by former Balochistan governor and chief of Bugti tribe Nawab Akbar Bugti demanding that the government and gas companies negotiated a fresh agreement with his tribe that owned the land from where most of the gas was produced in Balochistan.
Shakoor said that oil and gas were national assets and that damaging them was a State loss. “Such acts not only affect the consumers but also the economy of the country that cannot be allowed by anyone.”
The minister said exploration licences were being issued to exploration and production com panies in accordance with the government policies and there was no irregularity in this procedure.
“The companies, after getting petroleum rights, acquire land for carrying out exploration activities and directly pay the rentals through agreements with the owners of the land,” Shakoor said. “Thus there is no disparity in any agreement with the government.
“Irrespective of the fact that it is an intra-company issue, the E&P (exploration and production) companies have been directed to settle the rental issue, if any. Similarly, the royalty is being paid to the provincial government at the rate of 12.5 per cent as per their due share.”
He said civil armed forces had been called out from various areas, including Bahawalpur, Sukkur and Quetta.
The official said that 13 points had been declared most sensitive and paramilitary forces had been deployed there.
The interior ministry, he said, would monitor the deployment.
When asked if armymen had been deployed to protect the gas installations, he said there was no such plan.
But President’s Press Secretary Major-Gen Rashid Qureshi said troops could be sent to the sensitive areas on a request from the interior ministry.
“It is solely an issue of the interior ministry and thus I am totally out of the picture,” he told Dawn.
Iftikhar Ahmed said a case for Sunday’s blasting of the Sui- Guddu transmission line had been registered against unidentified terrorists with the relevant police station.
When asked if the authorities had any clue to who were the men behind the pipeline destruction, the official termed the incident an act of sabotage committed by unidentified terrorists.
Last week, a ministry spokesman had accused the Bugti tribesmen of being behind the first attack on the pipeline in Rajanpur on Jan 20.
Iftikhar said the government had ordered round- the-clock patrolling by civil armed forces and police to check any act of sabotage in future.
SUPPLY RESTORED: Meanwhile, another interior ministry official said that the Sui-Guddu pipeline had now been repaired and gas supply restored to the affected areas.
“However, the pressure of gas to the consumers’ end could be low and it will become normal within the next 24 hours,” he said.
