PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited (OGCL) spent a whopping amount of money on the salaries of its chief executive officer and other staff members but failed to dig a single well during the last four years.

The disclosure about the government-owned company was made during the question hour of the provincial assembly on Thursday.

The company was established in 2013 to explore oil and gas in the southern belt of the province but the government admitted that the OGCL couldn’t discover oil and gas.

PA admits ANP adjournment motion for discussion on SP’s murder

Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPA Mian Nisar Gul, who moved a question, told the house that the company couldn’t sink a single well of oil and gas since its creation in 2013.

Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani kept the question pending due to a late reply by the energy and power department and absence of the minister concerned.

According to the official reply, OGCL chief executive officer Mohammad Raziuddin was paid Rs2 million salary a month in addition to other perks and privileges.

He was apparently the highest paid employee in the province.

The CEO was sacked last Oct in light of an inquiry committee’s report, which recommended his termination from service. He was hired in Jan 2014.

The department concerned revealed in the reply that OGCL manager (finance) Amjad Sheikh was getting Rs750,000, manager (human resource) Nauman Akbar Rs450,000, manager exploration (DPC) Tariq Rashid Rs200,000 salary a month.

It added that the company had hired a total of 110 employees and many of them had resigned.

In reply to a similar question moved by Awami National Party lawmaker Shagufta Malik about the performance of OGCL, the department admitted that the company failed to discover oil and gas but played a major role in increasing oil and gas production.

It added that the company had attracted national and international companies. The chair also kept Ms Malik’s question pending.

The department said the daily oil production was 30,000 barrels in 2013, which reached 53,000 barrels in 2017-18; the gas production had increased from 330mmcfd to 443mmcfd, and liquid gas production, which was 10 tons daily, had reached 550 tons a day.

Responding to a question, adviser to the chief minister on elementary education Ziaullah Bangash said the government had allocated 90 percent of the annual development programme for the ongoing schemes in the education sector.

He said no new school had been included in the ADP.

ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak tabled an adjournment motion seeking discussion on the murder of superintendent police Tahir Dawar.

The motion was admitted for a detailed discussion.

In his motion, Mr Babak said the kidnapping of Tahir Dawar in Islamabad had raised many questions about the performance of security and intelligence agencies.

He said a serving police officer was kidnapped in the federal capital, while his body with marks of torture was found in Afghanistan after 18 days.

The ANP leader said silence on part of the federal and provincial governments, interior ministry and KP police on the killing was very upsetting.

He demanded of the government to name culprits and hold an in-camera meeting on the matter.

Mr Babak said the Supreme Court chief justice had taken a suo moto notices of the posting and transfer of police officers in Punjab and Islamabad but unfortunately, he didn’t take notice of the brutal killing of Tahir Dawar.

He alleged that Pakistan and Afghanistan were patronising the Taliban militants and that innocent Pakhtuns were used as fuel in the conflict.

Law and parliamentary affairs minister Sultan Mohammad Khan said the government was ready to organise an in-camera briefing for parliamentary leaders about the details of the SP killing case.

He said the police officer’s killing was a sensitive issue and investigations into it were in progress.

RESOLUTION: The assembly unanimously passed a resolution denouncing the US move to include Pakistan in the list of countries where religious freedom is violated.

Minority MPA Wazirzada, who belongs to Kalash religious minority from Chitral district, tabled the resolution. Another PTI MPA, Ravi Kumar, read the text of the resolution.

The resolution termed the US resolution baseless and biased and said religious minorities enjoyed complete freedom and got protection.

It added that the US was overlooking atrocities against Muslims and Sikhs in India and victimisation of Muslims in Palestine as it didn’t blacklist the culpable countries over rights violations.

“The US should understand that worship places of religious minorities are protected in Pakistan and that the religious minorities have got all rights in the countries,” said the resolution.

The house also passed six resolutions about the shifting of headquarters of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Company Limited from Lahore to Islamabad, supply of electricity from the Golen Gol Hydropower Project to Upper and Lower Dir districts, and construction of a motorway from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan.

The sitting was adjourned until 10am on Monday.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018