Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Apropos a news item carried by Daily Times captioned “As caretakers step in, NAB starts probe into executive appointments during PML-N tenure”, the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has clarified that the appointment of Sheikh ImranulHaq as managing director was made in September 2015 and not after award of the contract which was actually over a year-and-a-half earlier, as claimed by the report.

“The company actually began importing LNGbefore joining of the current MD CEO, and upon commissioning of terminal to process LNG purchased by the PSO. The company was in fact mandated by the ECC as per the LNG policy. Moreover, the Engro Terminal has a contract with the SSGCL and not the PSO,” a statement issued by the organization said.

“The appointment of MD was made in line with the qualification and experience required for the position. The hiring process was initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. The list of short-listed candidates was directly provided to the ministry by a third-party executive search firm and out of those, three names were proposed to the prime minister who, under the policy, is final authority to select a candidate. The appointment and salary was also approved by the Ministry of Finance and the Establishment Division,” it added.

“The LNG was declared as a petroleum product so that its pricing can be done by the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) under the PDL ordinance. This was required to have monthly pricing done on the basis of actual imports cost on monthly basis as undertaken for all other petroleum products.” the statement read.

Published in Daily Times, June 6^th 2018.