ISLAMABAD: Following in the footsteps of the PPP, the PML-N government posted on Thursday an additional secretary as member of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on a temporary basis and extended contracts of heads of two oil and gas companies.

Sources told Dawn that Arif Ahmed Khan, an additional secretary of the cabinet division which controls administrative affairs of regulatory bodies, had been posted as Ogra member oil. The position had been lying vacant for about two months.

A notification issued by the cabinet division says: “The competent authority has been pleased to assign additional charge of the post of Member (Oil), Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, to additional secretary-II, cabinet division, for a period of three months or till the appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier.”

Senior officials at the petroleum ministry said the Ogra Act did not allow any government officer to be appointed as member or chairman of the authority unless he retired before joining the regulatory position to avoid conflict of interest. Moreover, there was no provision in the law for an acting or additional charge to ensure integrity of the regulator and its decisions, they said.

The officials said the government was a stakeholder in the case of regulated activities of the oil and gas sector and any posting from within the government compromised the independence of regulatory bodies.

They said the PPP government had to remove Farooq Awan, also a civil servant, as chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority after the Lahore High Court declared him ineligible for the position for the same reason (conflict of interest).

The sources said the major reason behind Mr Arif’s induction appeared to be to complete the quorum at Ogra to decide on passing on to consumers Rs49 billion system losses, theft and gas lost because of the law and order situation.

The two-member Ogra has been asking the government to issue policy guidelines for passing on the losses to consumers, but the PML-N was reluctant to take an unpopular political decision.

The cabinet division had invited applications for the post about two months ago, but stopped the process and sought fresh applications early this week apparently to gain time for a permanent induction and achieve the desired results through an ad hoc arrangement.

Meanwhile, the government extended the contracts of Managing Director of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited Arif Hameed and Managing Director of the Pakistan State Oil Amjad Pervez Janjua in violation of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s order against contract extensions.

The sources said the establishment division had pointed out to the government that Mr Janjua’s tenure, which was on ‘look-after basis’, had expired in October last year and the petroleum ministry had been retaining him as PSO chief illegally.

The establishment division said the initial notification about Mr Janjua’s contract was for three months or till induction of a full-time MD, whichever was earlier, as approved and notified by the prime minister. The establishment division wrote that the petroleum ministry “omitted the words whichever is earlier”, which rendered his continuation as “irregular beyond the period of three months”.

But the petroleum minister requested the prime minister to grant ex-post facto approval for continuation of Mr Janjua after October 2013 till the regular appointment of the chief of PSO.

The sources said the petroleum ministry was lobbying for regular induction of Mr Janjua through PSO’s board of management.

The prime minister has extended the contract of Arif Hameed till February next year.

But the government did not extend the contract of the managing director of the Pakistan Petroleum Limited and instead gave its charge to Arshad Mirza, Additional Secretary of the Petroleum Ministry.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2014