ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday unceremoniously removed Petro­leum Secr­etary Momin Agha and dir­ected him to report to the Establis­hment Division without any further posting.

In his place, the government gave the additional charge of pet­roleum secretary to Mirza Nasir-ud-Din Ahmad, Additional Secretary Petroleum, on a look-after basis till the posting of a regular officer.

Informed sources said Mr Agha and petroleum minister Ali Pervez Malik were not on the same page over the past couple of months, despite both being close to the top PML-N leadership, on issues pertaining to gas allocations, third party use of pipeline capacity by private sector, nominations for board of directors in public sector entities and matters relating to appointments in Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) including the position of its chairman.

This led to the unceremonious exit of Mr Agha, a grade-22 officer of the Pakistan Administrative Service, formerly of the District Management Group. A similar situation had occurred earlier last year, culminating in the transfer of former petroleum minister Dr Musadik Malik to the Climate Change Division.

Meanwhile, the government also appointed Muhammad Khalid Rehman as managing director of Pakistan Petroleum Ltd (PPL) for an interim period of three months in addition to his own position as Chief Financial Officer.

He replaced Sikandar Ali Memon, who had been holding the PPL top post on an interim basis for quite some time but was not allowed to continue after reaching superannuation.

More changes are likely to follow in the associated wings and companies of the petroleum division as a group of bureaucrats close to the minister appeared jubilant on the exit of Mr Agha and ready to assume rewarding board positions in lucrative petroleum companies.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2026