Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) may face a lack of quorum if Member Oil, a dual national, is dismissed in the event that the government formulates a rule disallowing dual nationals from holding office as per the supreme court's directives issued on 15 December 2018. The government has yet to formulate the rules on the matter; in the event that the government decides not to allow dual nationals to hold public office it would imply that Ogra would be disabled from taking critical decisions on revenue requirements of gas utilities and granting licence for LNG terminal, sources told this newspaper.
Ogra's Member Oil holds nationality and he may not be part of important future decisions regarding final revenue requirement (FRR) of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL), sources added.
The matter regarding grant of license to Trafigura Pakistan (Private) Limited to carry out the sale of Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) in the country has been taken up by Ogra. The public hearing was conducted on December 18, 2018 while the Member Oil was part of the hearing.
Without participation of Ogra's Member Oil, Ogra's quorum is incomplete as currently Ogra is also working without member gas. The regulatory body has at present a full time chairperson and Member Finance and is considered complete when there are at least three members.
Sources said that the Member Oil will inform the federal cabinet about his decision to surrender his dual nationality or his job.
Following the Supreme Court's decision on December 15, 2018 pertaining to dual nationalities of government officers, hundreds of government servants appointed in various federal and provincial government ministries, statutory bodies, institutes, companies, semi-autonomous corporations, and authorities are likely to be removed from their jobs.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had submitted a list of around 1,000 dual nationals holding government offices with the Supreme Court. According to the FIA, as many as 719 officers had declared their dual national status while others chose to hide it.
In this regard, the federal government is expected to issue a letter asking government servants holding dual nationality to either leave the job or surrender their foreign nationality. The federal government will also give a deadline for their decision, sources said.
Petroleum Division had raised the issue of vacant posts and other issues in OGRA with the Cabinet Division in the past but these were not addressed on priority, a high level official of Petroleum Division said.
On May 24, 2018, Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) stopped Ogra from re-advertising the vacant post of member gas and directed it to consider the short-listed candidates for filling the post. The cabinet division on February 27, 2018 advertised the vacant post of member gas in Ogra.
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