ISLAMABAD: Senator Farhatullah Babar on Wednesday said a mysterious move is afoot to deprive the provinces of their rights to develop upstream petroleum sector by allowing the federal petroleum ministry to grant concessions in this regard, which was in violation of the 18th Amendment.
He said that a bill, “Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Regulatory Authority Act 2107”, had already been drawn up to set up an authority to grant and monitor all petroleum concessions and other upstream activities throughout the country.
The upstream petroleum sector, he said, included exploration and production of oil and gas, besides holding the key to sufficiency in this sector, decreasing imports and paving way for the economic development in the country.
The senator further said the bill provided the petroleum ministry to initiate upstream development work anywhere in the country, through a “simple notification”. Terming the bill a one-liner that usurps the rights of the provinces, he said the bill gives complete authority to the ministry.
Upon this, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani asked Babar to give a copy of the proposed bill to the secretariat, which he did.
Later, the minister concerned, while winding up the discussion, acknowledged that a draft of the legislation indeed had been drawn up.
Farhatullah Babar questioned that why the government had never had awarded concessions to the exploration companies or provinces during the last five years, asking was it deliberately done to favour “the powerful lobbies”. He also demanded a thorough investigation into the matter.
The reported patronage by the World Bank for such move should be probed, he said, adding that World Bank was not supposed to decide on how to apportion economic resources between the provinces and the federation, he said.
He said that the 2012 Petroleum Policy also stated that the policy would be revisited after five years; why it had not been done so far.
He also quoted from the relevant article of the Constitution and read out Article 172 (3) which states: “subject to the existing commitments and obligations, mineral oil and natural gas within the province or the territorial waters adjacent thereto shall vest jointly and equally in that the province and the federal government”.
