Controversy relating to Ogra chief ends

The controversy relating to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) chairman Tauqir Sadiq, allowing a PML-Q parliamentarian to change the site of compressed natural gas (CNG) station, ended with the resignation of Member, Oil, Dr Ilyas Fazil, Business Recorder learnt on Sunday.
The controversy had erupted in March when the Ogra chairman supported the PML-Q parliamentarian to change the site of a CNG station, but the vice-chairman/member gas, and Member, Oil, opposed the decision, saying that it was against policy decision, banning new CNG stations.
"Now, vice chairman/member gas Hadi Hasnain is going to retire on August 3," sources said, adding that Member, Oil, "has also submitted his resignation" to Cabinet because he does not want to work with the Ogra chairman. This correspondent attempted to contact Member, Oil, for comments, but he did not take the call.
Director General (DG), Ministry of Petroleum, Mansoor Muzaffar, and Executive Director (Gas), Ogra, Sarfraz Ali Sheikh, are the likely candidates for new Member, Gas, sources said. After a dispute on relocation of CNG station, the Ogra chairman had made vice chairman/member gas and member oil dysfunctional. "Chairman, Ogra, issued circular to delegate all powers to himself (Ogra chairman) for heading all departments," sources said, adding that member oil had resigned in protest over this decision. Both the vice chairman/member gas and member oil were of the view that Ogra chairman did not have the authority to make any Ogra member dysfunctional. CNG sector is also divided over the relocation of CNG stations. The Chairman of CNG Association, Abdul Sami, said that there should be a ban on relocation of CNG station policy because it would open the doors to malpractice.
In a meeting of CNG Board, held on May 13, 2010, headed by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Naveed Qamar, Abdul Sami proposed that relocation of CNG stations may not be allowed. But the Central Chairman of All Pakistan CNG Stations, Ghyas Paracha, had argued that relocation of CNG stations should be allowed in hardship cases, subject to the clearance, inter alia by the concerned gas company. However, the CNG Board decided to further deliberate on the issue of relocation of CNG stations. It was also decided that relocation policy would not be applicable to provincial licences of CNG stations.