Oil and gas companies’ profits: Senate panel directs ministry to submit details in two days

ISLAMABAD: A Senate sub-committee on Monday put the petroleum ministry on notice, directing it to submit within two days a detailed account of the profits earned by oil and gas companies over the past 16 years, amid pointed questions over who benefited from the billions generated from the country’s natural resources.

The directive came during a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Devolution’s sub-committee, chaired by Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro, which was reviewing the implementation of constitutional guarantees relating to provincial ownership and participation in natural resource development.

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Officials informed the committee that profits generated by oil and gas companies had simply been distributed among shareholders, but the explanation failed to satisfy members.

Senator Ghumro ordered the ministry to submit a comprehensive report on profits earned since 2009, detailing not only the amounts involved but also how the earnings had been distributed and ultimately utilised.

The panel was examining implementation of Article 172(3) of the Constitution, which guarantees provincial ownership and participation in oil and gas resources, including representation on the boards of state-owned energy companies.

Petroleum ministry officials told the committee they had written to provincial chief secretaries, reminding them that the constitution envisaged provincial representation on company boards and provincial ownership of shares.

They said consultations with the provinces on board nominations and shareholding would now begin.

Questioning years of apparent inaction, Senator Ghumro directed the ministry to immediately seek nominations from provincial governments, stressing that the federation had no business nominating provincial representatives.

That authority, he added, rested exclusively with the provinces.

He urged the ministry to implement constitutional safeguards for oil- and gas-producing provinces “in letter and spirit,” signalling the committee’s dissatisfaction with the pace of compliance.

The committee also turned its attention to what members described as another glaring governance failure – nearly 275,000 sanctioned federal posts lying vacant despite budgetary allocations for them.

Members of the panel said the prolonged failure to fill the positions undermined citizens’ constitutional right to employment under Article 38(g).

Committee members noted that Sindh remained short of at least 83,000 federal positions under the provincial quota, while Balochistan was underrepresented by around 27,000 posts.

The panel directed the Establishment Division to revisit previous notifications on provincial quotas, establish a dedicated cell to address the issue and submit all relevant documents, along with a timeline for corrective measures, within a week.

It also ordered the division to provide a schedule for filling vacancies in BS-1 to BS-16, recruitment plans through the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC) for BS-16 and BS-17 positions, and the timetable for convening promotion boards for officers in BS-18 to BS-22.

Ghumro said it was indefensible that thousands of government posts remained vacant while unemployment continued to rise, with fresh graduates entering an increasingly bleak job market despite the existence of funded positions waiting to be filled.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026