Each province to have DGPC: PM

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday rubbished the claim that a mysterious unexplained move is afoot to deprive the provinces of their rights to develop upstream petroleum sector on the advice of the World Bank (WB). In a statement in the Senate, Prime Minister Abbasi said the government has decided to set up a separate Directorate General of Petroleum Concessions (DGPC) in every province to boost oil and gas exploration across the country.
He said that WB was engaged as a consultant to guide the government, which ended a year ago. He said that work on DGPCs is being done on a recommendation made in the 18th constitutional amendment.
He said that all the provinces were taken on board and he had held about ten meetings with chief ministers of all the four provinces when he was holding the portfolio of petroleum minister. He said the decisions of Council of Common Interests (CCI) do not apply on Sui Northern Gas Company Limited (SNGPL). He said that after meetings with the provinces, it has proposed to set up a separate GDPC in every province.
After the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, provinces in Pakistan were empowered to claim their right on 50% of natural resources and consequently they established their energy ministries.
The PM said the provinces were important stakeholders in the entire process of dividing the DGPC into regulation and policy wings.
Pakistan People''s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar had claimed in Senate that a bill titled the "Pakistan Petroleum Exploration and Production Regulatory Authority Act, 2107" has already been drawn up to set up an authority to grant and monitor all petroleum concessions and other upstream activities throughout the country.
BILLS The Senate passed two bills - The Pakistan Tobacco Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Apprenticeship Bill, 2017.
The objective of ''Pakistan Tobacco Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017'' is to broaden the scope of definition of tobacco in accordance with the modern day requirements of tobacco industry and make it comprehensive and inclusive of all parts of the tobacco plant, its products and by-products made thereof.
Another objective of the Bill is "enable PTB to wind up the court cases and audit paras which came to the surface directly or indirectly due to the limited scope of the definition of tobacco in the PTB Ordinance 1968."
''The Apprenticeship Bill, 2017'' is meant to promote systematic apprenticeship programme in the industry to secure certain minimum standards of skills and vocational training facilities in various fields.