ISLAMABAD: Except for two private companies, the quota for liquefied petroleum gas has been abolished by the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) for all entities over the past few years, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) learnt on Thursday.
One of the two companies is Capgas, a subsidiary of the Pakistan Oil Fields Ltd, and the other — WAK Gas — is being run by some former PPP senators and Inter-Services Intelligence’s ex-chief Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.
OGDCL managing director Zahid Mir informed a PAC meeting that in accordance with a policy made by the government in August 2007, his company started abolishing the quota system in a gradual manner.
Mr Mir was responding to an audit objection to the distribution of LPG under a quota system instead of selling it through open competition.
He said the OGDCL had been distributing 360 metric tonnes (MT) of LPG by quota until 2007 when it started the allocation through open bidding.
One company has ISI’s former director general Shuja Pasha as its group chief adviser
He said the quota system had almost been revoked as 330MT of LPG is now being sold through open bidding, adding that since WAK Gas and Capgas went into litigation and obtained a stay order in their favour they continued to get the LPG under the old system because the court had directed the authorities concerned to preserve their quota till further orders.
According to the OGDCL’s record, the lion’s share of Adhi field — the only LPG reservoir managed by the OGDCL — was allocated to WAK Gas.
The company owned by former senators Gulzar Ahmed Khan, Waqar Ahmed Khan and Ammar Ahmed Khan was given 50 per cent of the LPG quota in 1988. After his retirement in 2012, Gen Pasha joined WAK Gas as its group chief adviser. The company’s website provides a brief introduction of Gen Pasha on its management page.
The remaining 50pc quota from the Adhi filed was equally divided between Capgas and Sun Gas.
The OGDCL record shows that the LPG quota was allocated to WAK Gas during the PPP government in 1988 when Jehangir Badar was the minister for petroleum and natural resources. After the term of the quota had expired, these companies obtained a stay order from a high court.
