FAISALABAD: Issuance of a petrol pump licence to a political figure has landed the Coordination Branch employees of the deputy commissioner office in trouble.

Deputy Commissioner Saifullah has recently sealed the branch on a complaint that it had issued petrol pump licences to many people including a PML-N man by flouting the ban imposed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). An inquiry has been initiated on the direction of the DC.

Ogra while banning the installation of the new petrol pumps has directed the marketing companies to keep an appropriate quantity of oil in their stores to cope with any emergency situation.

Sources said following the direction of Ogra the district administrations had stopped the process of allowing the installation of new pumps. They said PML-N parliamentarians had asked former DC Salman Ghani to issue the NOC for the new pumps as their adjoining districts including Sargodha and Jhang had been doing so. They said the DC convened a meeting of the district petrol pumps committee in which the issue of the NOC was discussed. The committee had issued the NOCs in its first meeting and another meeting was also convened in April.

Similarly, ex-DC Ahmed Fawad, who served in the interim setup, also convened the meeting of the committee for the NOCs. They said the present DC had been informed about the issue and he immediately summoned the officials and grilled them for flouting the ban.

They said it was not understandable why the DC had locked the entire branch and stopped the staff from performing their duty. An officer requesting anonymity said the DC should not have locked the entire branch without conducting a probe into the issue.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018