ISLAMABAD.
The government on Wednesday decided to dissolve the entire management board of the state-owned Pakistan State Oil, the largest oil company in Pakistan, seemingly over their alleged failure to prevent the petrol crisis in Punjab last month. The government also suspended Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority Chairman Saeed Ahmad Khan for three months for the same reason.
The Ogra chairman states that responsibility falls to the petroleum ministry, not Ogra, and that the regulator was only responsible for helping ensure that the 20-day storage infrastructure was built, not for the maintenance of inventory. Saeed Ahmad Khan pointed out that it is the petroleum minister’s Director General Oil who meets with oil companies every month to review the state of their inventories.
On Tuesday, the government had already suspended four senior officials of PSO, including the managing director, along with several petroleum ministry officials last month.
According to officials familiar with the matter, there was uproar at PSO after the suspension of the management board.
Some PSO officials are mulling over a plan of going on strike to protest the federal government’s actions, said sources.
