ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat is meeting here on Monday to take up a heavy agenda which includes a bill seeking restructuring of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and a briefing on deferred case of promotions of officers of different cadres.

The committee, headed by Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), will also seek details of the cases in various courts which have been filed by officers of various cadres against the Establishment Division besides reviewing appointments made by the government in the Establishment Division and its attached departments over the last one year, according to the 11-point agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat.

The bill titled “Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Act 2015” was submitted by Sassui Palejo of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as a private member. Through the bill, the mover has sought equal representation of the four provinces in Ogra and suggested that Ogra chairman should be appointed on a rotation basis from the four federating units. Ogra has been functioning in the country since promulgation of the Ogra Ordinance, 2002, (Ordinance XVII of 2002) on March 28, 2002, with the main objective to determine prices of selective oil and gas products, many of them falling in provinces’ jurisdiction.

The PPP senator has also sought the role of the Council of Common Interests in resolving disputes between the federal government and provinces.

At present, Ogra comprises a chairman and three members, who are known as member of gas, member of oil and member of finance. The bill suggests that Ogra should comprise “four members, one each from the four provinces, to be appointed by the federal government in consultation with the provincial government concerned”.

“The chairman of the Authority shall be appointed from among the members for one year, by rotation in the given order.” At present, Ogra chairman is appointed on a four-year term, says the bill. The Statement of Objectives and Reasons attached to the bill states that “after the 18th Constitution Amendment, provinces have been granted greater autonomy in matters relating to their natural reserves, hence any regulatory mechanism working at the federal level to regulate affairs of distribution of these resources and matters connected therewith must be mutually shared and agreed upon. However, this can be made possible only if any regulatory mechanism has equal representation from the provinces, hence, it is necessary to provide for equal representation from all provinces in Ogra”.

The Senate committee is also scheduled to receive a briefing on deferred cases of various officers considered by the Central Selection Board (CSB) last year. The issue has already been discussed by the committee twice in its meetings held in June last year. In its last meeting on the matter on June 22, the committee had declared that the process adopted by the CSB for promoting senior government officers was “not transparent”.

The committee members had asked the secretary of Establishment Division to brief them in the next meeting on reasons for giving and denying promotions to each and every officer, alleging that a number of honest and deserving officers had not been promoted.

The committee members had alleged that the CSB had promoted some officers facing charges of corruption in various courts and before the National Accountability Bureau.

The secretary of Establishment has denied charges that decisions regarding promotion of officers were “pre-decided” and that the process has been carried out with mala fide intention. However, the committee members did not agree with the secretary and asked him to present the record and details of all officers who have been denied promotions by the CSB.

The matter was referred to the committee by Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani when MQM’s Tahir Mashhadi and PPP’s Saeed Ghani had drawn attention of the house towards the alleged discrimination with smaller provinces in the promotion of senior government officers by the CSB. Besides this, the committee will also review steps needed for strengthening of the Federal Public Service Commission.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2016