Government may relieve Chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) Tauqeer Sadiq by appointing former Secretary Petroleum Mahmood Saleem Mahmood as new chief, Business Recorder has learnt. "Three names for the post of Chairman Ogra are being proposed and Mahmood Saleem Mahmood is a strong candidate," sources said.
Tauqeer Sadiq's appointment as chief Ogra gave birth to lot of controversies. As soon as he took over the charge, he developed differences with Members Oil and Gas. First controversy erupted when Tauqeer Sadiq delegated powers to Member Finance Kamal Mari and made former Member Oil, Dr Illyas Fazil, and Member Gas, Hadi Hasnan, dysfunctional who had opposed the decision to relocate site of a CNG station owned by a parliamentarian from the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q). Dr Illyas Fazil resigned after Member Gas Hadi Hasnan was retired on August 3, 2010.
Secretary Cabinet Division Nargis Sethi wrote a strong worded letter to Chairman Ogra asking him to restore the powers of existing Member Gas. "But chairman Ogra defied the orders of Cabinet Division Secretary and Member Finance Mir Kamal Mari is still enjoying powers of Member Gas," sources maintained.
The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has also declared Tauqeer Sadiq's LLM degree as fake. Tauqeer Sadiq appointment has also been challenged in the High Court. National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources had also expressed serious concerns over his appointment as Ogra chief without required experience and qualification in relevant fields.
Sources maintained that Ogra chief, Tauqeer Sadiq had been asked to resign and Mahmood Saleem Mahmood former Secretary Petroleum had been tipped as new Ogra chief. Government has recently removed heads of three major oil and gas companies - Oil and Gas Development Company Limited, Pakistan State Oil and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited - and changes in other public sector state oil and gas companies are expected in coming few days.
"The same formula is being proposed to be implemented in Ogra by removing existing chief Tauqeer Sadiq," sources said adding that acting head would be appointed of the Authority who will later be replaced with new Chief by selecting him through advertisement.
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