Daily Times

The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum in its meeting on Friday discussed the issues of queue system for oil tankers in the PSO fleet and the preference to make tankers/lorries compliant to the standards defined by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the National Highway Authority (NHA).

The committee’s earlier direction was of making one queue for all compliant and non-compliant vehicles. The OGRA had set a deadline of October 2019 for using only compliant vehicles for oil transportation. After the expiry of the deadline, all non-compliant oil tankers would reportedly be grounded.

The committee, after hearing the members and representatives of the PSO, OGRA and the Oil Tankers Contractors Association, directed that there should be two queue system by the PSO with compliant vehicles in one and non-compliant in the other. The committee noted that non-compliant vehicles should be treated as such no matter if they belonged to private contractors or the National Logistics Cell (NLC). The committee also directed that the PSO should run the queue on the same system as the private companies and PSO should be given the right to run the queue.

Regarding the issue of supply of natural gas to Dara Adam Khel, sub-division of Kohat, the committee was told by the Petroleum Division and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) that there was a Peshawar High Court decision barring the SNGPL from work on any other project in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa before working on gas project in Thal and adjoining areas. The committee was assured that the funding for Thal project had been recommended by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and it would be ratified by the cabinet soon, which would give way for the project initiation in Dara Adam Khel.

The committee was also given a briefing on the Public Sector Development Programme schemes of the Petroleum Division for the fiscal year 2019-20. The matter regarding the termination of Charsadda Distribution Record Senior Supervisor Fakhar Alam Khan was also discussed at the meeting. The committee was told that the person was found guilty of causing physical injury to a colleague through a number of departmental inquiries and the matter was currently sub judice. The committee directed the ministry and the SNGPL to pursue the case in court and ensure that the person, if not involved, be given relief.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz at the Parliament House, and was attended among others by Senators Behramand Tangi, Sardar Shafiq Tareen, Shamim Afridi, Dr Jahanzeb Jamaldini, Taj Muhammad Afridi, Saleem Zia, Salahuddin Tirmzi and Qurratulain Marri, besides officials from the Petroleum Ministry and other relevant departments.