ISLAMABAD

The members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources staged walkout from the committee proceedings on Monday as a protest against the maltreatment of SNGPL and SSGCL officials, saying that gas utilities were even not ready to listen their genuine grievances.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources met here with Chaudhary Bilal Ahmed Virk, Chairman standing committee in the chair.
Lamenting the indifference of the Sui-Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui-Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) officials, the committee members said that they were not paying any attention towards the gas supply schemes of the parliamentarians for which funds have already been transferred.
Chaudhary Bilal Ahmed Virk, protesting against the absence of SNGPL Managing Director (MD) Uzma Adil from the meeting, staged a walkout and following him the committee chairman and other members of the committee also left the meeting.
Earlier, chairman of the committee asked General Manager SNGPL, Ijaz Chaudhary, to leave the committee meeting and asked the gas utility management to immediately transfer him as he was even not listening to the genuine requests of the parliamentarians.
Briefing the committee, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, while supporting stance of the parliamentarians, said that the gas utilities were repeatedly failing in resolving their pending issues and the officials of the companies were not performing their duties until they were not snubbed by the government or by the costumers.
Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs, Aftab Shiekh, briefing the committee, said that the government has approved Rs 7.75 billion to complete the ongoing gas development schemes of parliamentarians and 50pc of the amount has been transferred to the gas utilities in this respect. Further, the Ministry of Petroleum has also moved a summary to the Prime Minister for lifting ban on new gas schemes, he added.
During discussion with regard to release of funds for gas development schemes of parliamentarians for the financial year 2015-16, the Standing Committee Members complained that officials of both the gas companies (SNGPL & SSGCL) did not pay heed even to the genuine grievances which, now, have culminated in the shape of unrest and despair among general public. MOS for Parliamentary Affairs assured the House that government is committed to serve the nation and all the projects would be completed as per given time.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Federal Minister for P&NR, Minister of State for Petroleum, Mir jam Kamal and Secretary Ministry of Petroleum Arshad Mirza, Akram Khan Durrani, Federal Minister for Housing & Works, Malik Ihtehar Khan, Mian Tariq Mehmood, Rana Muhammad Ishaq Khan, Ch. Khalid Javed Warraich, Nawab Ali Wassan and Shehryar Afridi attended the meeting.