The Managing Director of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL), Abdul Rashid Lone, was calm, lonely and helpless when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) drubbed him for inflated gas bills, turning down his logical briefing, which served no purpose in the face of the barrage of allegations.
The PAC meeting, presided over by Nisar Ali Khan, was not in a mood to take further briefing on alleged corruption charges against SNGPL MD and the inflated gas bills, as such debates are not in any form helpful to consumers who feel disgruntled due to price hike. "Your briefing really means nothing. So, I just do not want to have it. Tell me what steps you have taken for relieving the poor masses of financial woes, paying inflated bills with the gift of regular load management," Nisar said.
He said that the slabs system should be reviewed, bringing more lower middle class people into the lower slab to give household consumers a sigh of relief as industrial consumers also put the burden on the salaried and labour class in the form of indirect taxes and high cost of consumer goods. The PAC chairman directed SNGPL chief not to evade reality and should develop a mechanism for dispatching accurate gas bills, on the basis of consumption, to the masses, and warned that any negligence in this regard would not be tolerated.
"Your billing system is preposterous. You are playing with emotions of poor people. People can not sleep due to skyrocketing gas bills; but you just do not care. This is extreme, and we can not let it go like this," he added. The PAC chairman constituted a three-member subcommittee, headed by Zahid Hamid, to conduct thorough investigation in the massive misappropriation in SNGPL. Former chairman of Ogra, Dr Munir Ahmad Khan, and former Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary will be ex-officio members. The committee will present its report to PAC in its next meeting.
PAC Member Riaz Fatyana started questioning SNGPL MD by sarcastically congratulating him that he successfully completed his eight glorious years as SNGPL MD on March 13, 2010, but Lone, who did not complain during his term in office, tried to defend himself on leaving the profit earning organisation into loss. When Fatyana asked why the organisation was running with a loss of Rs 243 million despite earning profit in its 46 years' history, Lone was stooding mum as if he did not have tongue in his mouth, on which PAC members could not help from controlling their laughter as the only reason given ror inflated billing was inability of the organisation to reach the meters.
The SNGPL has no other option but to send provisional bills as its staff could not get the correct reading due to dogs at site, meter covered with bushes, water inside meter index, high installation of meters, reading counter damaged, index glass dirty, meter not found, under rain water etc was the only semi logical answer murmured by the chief who got extension on his state-of-the-art service to the nation.
Upon hearing these amusing words, which was a sad story of the state of all the public sector institutions in the country, Nisar said: "My lord, where the government managers are leading the country to, as it seems that the governance system is not intact and ad hocism is the rule of the day."
About the allegations of sending his son, Saulat Rashid Lone, abroad for higher studies and his several recreation trips while on ex-Pakistan leave on company's expenses, SNGPL MD said that he would pay all expenditure from his pocket if the allegations levelled against him proved true. Saulat was accused of getting 117 days ex-Pakistan leave with pay (in Pak rupees) as per his accumulated privilege leave balance entitlement and the remaining as ex-Pakistan study leave without pay but all his study expenditures, along with boarding and lodging including many trips to other European countries, were borne by the company.
It is a distinction for the offspring of people in the higher bureaucracy as local degrees have become worthless in the country for getting jobs with luxurious pay packages.
Lone said that the company did not bear any expense ie tuition fee, boarding, lodging, travelling. "My son was selected by the board of governors and on successful completion of MSc degree from UK, he re-joined his duty on November 24, 2009", he clarified. Meanwhile, lambasting the chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for his poor performance to run the regulatory body, Nisar said that Orga had lost its credibility and had become an arm of the government. "All regulatory bodies, whether Nepra, Orga, etc, all have failed to perform their due role. I appeal to the people at the helm of affairs to run these regulatory bodies following proper rules and the purpose for which they are created," he said.
He said that there was a mushroom growth of CNG stations in residential areas but Orga, being a regulatory body, was unaware of the fact, and was issuing licences without fulfilling any laid down criteria.
Showering praise on Kamran Lashari, Secretary, Petroleum and Natural Resources, Nisar said that he was optimistic that Kamran must prove his expertise once again in the oil and gas sector. He asked him to bring an effective petroleum policy, as was done in the case of capital's beautification, and traffic regulation in the capital.