ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has decided to examine transparency in the award of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) quota to a firm being run by former senators of the Pakistan Peoples Party and its board of directors, including former ISI chief retired Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

At a meeting of the PAC held on April 26 to review audit paras of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, some members of the committee, mostly lawmakers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, asked chairman Khursheed Ahmed Shah to direct the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to hold an inquiry into allocation of LPG quota to private individuals and firms and the way these firms sublet the quota to other companies.

As per record of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, a lion’s share of Adhi field — the only LPG reservoir managed by OGDCL — was allocated to WAK Gas. The company owned by former senators Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed Khan and Ammar Ahmed Khan was given 50 per cent LPG quota in 1988.

Gen Pasha joined WAK Gas as chief adviser after his retirement in 2012. The company’s website provides a brief introduction of Gen Pasha on its “management” page.

Ayub Baloch, a staff officer of Waqar Ahmed Khan, the chairman WAK Gas, confirms that Gen Pasha is working for the WAK Group. But he claimed that the LPG quota had been awarded to the group decades ago in a lawful manner.

The remaining 50pc quota from the Adhi filed was equally divided between Sun Gas and Cap Gas, according to OGDCL record.

During the debate on the audit paras relating to OGDCL on April 26, the PML-N lawmakers were of the opinion that the scrutiny of award of LPG quota would expose big fish.

According to a senior Ogra official, the LPG quota was allocated to WAK Gas during the PPP government in 1988 when Jehangir Badar was petroleum and natural resources minister. After the term of the quota had expired, the three companies went into litigation and obtained a stay order from a high court, he added.

The official said that besides the Adhi field, there were 11 LPG producers in the country, including Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL), OGDCL, MOL Gas, Jamshoro Joint Venture Limited (JJVL) and oil refineries.

The award of LPG quota from JJVL was challenged in the Supreme Court in 2011 by then leader of the opposition Khawaja Mohammad Asif of the PML-N who alleged that the quota had been awarded in a non-transparent manner.

The beneficiaries of the JJVL LPG quota included close aides to Gen Pervez Musharraf, several politicians, retired military officers and wife of a senior lawyer-cum-politician of the PPP.

Sheikh Rohail Asghar, a PML-N member of the PAC, told Dawn that the committee had sought a report from OGDCL to ascertain whether the LPG quota was awarded in a transparent manner or otherwise. The committee would give its opinion after going through the report which was yet to be submitted by OGDCL, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd , 2016