Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday ordered the removal of the managing directors of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) over the ongoing gas supply crisis.
The announcement to this effect was made by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet.
“The inquiry committee’s report was presented to the prime minister yesterday,” read the statement tweeted by Chaudhry, which adds that “keeping in view the report’s findings, the prime minister has announced that the heads of Sui Northern and Sui Northern be removed from their posts immediately”.
حالیہ دنوں میں عوام کو گیس کے شدید بحران کا سامنا رہا، وزیر اعظم نے گیس کے بحران کی ذمہ داری کے تعین کیلئے کمیٹی تشکیل دی اس انکوئری کمیٹی کی رپورٹ کل وزیر اعظم کو پیش کی گئ اس رپورٹ کے مد نظر وزیر اعظم نے سوئ سدرن اور سوئ ناردن کے سربراھان کو عہدوں سے فوری ہٹانےکا اعلان کیا ہے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 9, 2019
Last month, Prime Minister Imran had ordered an inquiry into the dwindling supply of gas which not only forced industry closures across Punjab and Karachi, but even affected domestic consumers as residents in many parts faced outages.
He summoned Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan who told him about the SNGPL and SSGC’s concealment of information from the government pertinent to a fault faced by some of the gas compressors.
According to the petroleum minister, a drop in gas production in the south fields of Kunnar Pasakhi and Gambat caused problems in Karachi, and faults in gas compressors at Nawabshah and Saran created shortages in the north.
“SNGPL did not report gas demand and supply shortfall in December accurately to the government, and SSGCL failed to inform the government about faults in the compressors in a timely manner,” a statement issued by the PM Office said.
“The specific allegations against the managing directors of SNGPL and SSGCL include negligence in reporting of facts to the ministry or incompetence to deal with operational issues, withholding of information from the government and overall systematic governance failure of SNGPL and SSGCL,” according to a notification issued by the petroleum division.