Apropos a news item "Petroleum Ministry has set the cat among the pigeons" carried by Business Recorder on Thursday, the Ministry of Petroleum has said that the matter was misreported. It said the impression created in the news item is not well founded and has been misreported.
As a matter of fact, detailed particulars of the MDs and members of the BODs were sought in pursuance of the Senate Standing Committee's meeting held at PSO House, Karachi on 28th March, 2008. During this meeting some of the senators had enquired about the detailed particulars of the newly appointed directors on various boards during the interim government.
It was desired that all necessary details in respect of their educational qualifications, experiences, businesses and particulars may be placed before the senate standing committee to ascertain their eligibility and background for selecting them to sit on company boards.
It was in this background that necessary information was sought from the companies and not for putting anyone on ECL which has wrongly been reported by a section of the press.-PR
OUR STAFF REPORTER ADDS: The standing committee members, who attended the meeting on March 28 at PSO House in Karachi contested the Ministry of Petroleum's claim on the issue.
One of the participants confided to BR on Thursday that some of the members of standing committee did raise the issue of the appointments on the boards of different companies of the Ministry of Petroleum made during the outgoing caretaker government and after heated debate the committee asked the representative of the ministry to present the personal information including NIC details of the members of the board, in the next meeting.
However, the standing committee did not direct any official to provide passport numbers of any of the newly appointed members of the boards. It was the ministry which added the word passport numbers to the content of the letter written for seeking personal information of the boards members.