KARACHI  -   Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the natural gas closure in Sindh is not only violation of Article 158 of the Constitution but it has rendered thousands of industrial and transporters [CNG] workers jobless and has also caused serious problems for domestic consumers.

This he said on Friday while talking to Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan who met him along with his delegation here at the CM House. The chief minister was assisted by Minister Energy Imtiaz Shaikh, CM Advisor on Law Murtaza Wahab, Secretary Energy Musadiq Ahmed Khan and Tariq Shah Director Energy.

The other delegates were Additional Secretary of the Ministry Dr Tanveer Qureshi, GD Petroleum Concessions Qazi Saleem Siddiqui, DG Gas Shahid Yousaf, DG Oil Jabbar Memon, Mohammad Iqbal DG Mineral. PTI MPA Haleem Adil Shaikh also attended the meeting.

Tariq Shah of Sindh Energy Department gave a presentation to the participants of the meeting. 

The federal minister assured the chief minister that the provinces would be given due presentation in the federal oil and gas companies. As far as the gas closure was concerned, he would be holding a meeting in the SSGCL office to take final decisions.

The chief minister talking about priority of requirements of natural gas said that Article 158 says: “The province in which a well-head of natural gas is situated shall have precedence over other parts of Pakistan in meeting the requirements from that well-head, subject to commitments and obligations as the commencing day.”

He said that Sindh produced 26,00 to 2,700 mmcfd daily against which Sindh was being given a quota of 1,000 to 1,100 mmcfd. He added that the gas of industrial captive power plants has been closed. “In the city there are 400 industrial units with a workforce of 100,000 employees. The entire industry in the city is facing gas closure from last three days,” he said and added CNG sector was also facing three-day closure in a week. “This situation is alarming and causing heavy unemployment,” he said.

Murad Ali Shah taking up issue of village gasification said that 985 schemes were pending with SSGCL from 2008-9 to 2017-18. Apart from it there were backlog of 8,522 applications with SSGCL for clearance. Out of 7,718 applications 50 were for commercial, 288 industrial, 390 captive power and  76 CNG.

The chief minister said that Sindh has no presentation in Ogra and proposed that there should be four members, including chairman and each province should be given presentation with one member. He also proposed an amendment in the Petroleum Concession Agreement (PCA)/Supplemental Agreement.

Under existing arrangement Federal Secretary Petroleum awards PCA to Energy and Power Companies and the chief minister proposed that Federal Secretary Petroleum and provincial Secretary Energy should jointly award the PCA.

He also proposed that the provincial chief inspector of mines should be given a role to inspect oil and gas fields for labour and mine safety issues.  He also took up the issue of representation of provinces in the board of PPL, OGDCL, SSGCL and PSO.

Syed Murad Ali Shah said that Excise Duty on Crude Oil is imposed under Article 161(1)(b) and quoted  it as “the net proceeds of the federal duty of excise on oil levied at well-head and collected by the federal government, shall not form part of the Federal Consolidated Fund and shall be paid to the provinces in which the well-head of oil is situated.”  He added that excise duty on crude oil has not been imposed since last eight years, therefore, the provincial government was facing revenue loss.

Federal Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar said that he had brought his delegation to meet the chief minister. He added that the purpose of his meeting was to know the point of the provincial government. He disclosed that he would meet with the chief ministers of the other provinces. 

The federal minister assured the chief minister that the provinces would be given due presentation in the federal oil and gas companies. As far as the gas closure was concerned, he would be holding a meeting in the SSGCL office to take final decisions.

The meeting agreed that a meeting of provinces with federal minister of petroleum would be held prior to next CCI so that a consensus could be developed to resolve all the issues unanimously.

The chief minister urged the federal petroleum minister to order opening of natural gas in the province. 

Later, briefing the media on the meeting, the adviser to chief minister on Information Murtaza Wahab and Minister for Energy Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh said that the chief minister effectively pleaded the Sindh case on gas crises and expressed optimism that gas crises would be resolved by this evening as per commitment made by the Federal Minister for Petroleum. “The federal minister assured the issue to be resolved by Friday evening as he was scheduled to hold meetings with the concerned officials,” he said. 

He also informed that a committee comprising him and energy minister would pursue the issue with the federal government.”It was also agreed that issue of representation of provincial govt at gas companies and other regulatory authorities would be taken up at the meeting of CCI which was a Constitutional forum, instead of the ECE or cabinet committees.” he told.  

The provincial minister and advisor further said that they would abide by their principled policy and fight for over constitutional rights, adding that decision regarding protest would be taken by party leadership.

Wahab also said that Karachi was financial hub of the country and suspension of gas supply was tantamount to plundering the rights of province and added that closure of transport, industrial units and CNG Stations in the city had made thousands of people jobless, he concluded.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party Karachi Division Friday staged a protest demonstration outside Karachi Press Club over gas shortage in the province and demanded the federal authorities to immediately restore gas supply to the province that produces 70 percent gas needs of the entire country.

Provincial Ministers Saeed Ghnai, Murtaza Baloch and PPP MPAs Liaquat Askani, Javed Nagori, and others addressed the protesters and said that the party claiming change had devastated the poor men in its initial days in power and now poor are even deprived of gas.

“The Sindh province is targeted as it has given an overwhelming support to the PPP in the polls,” they said and added that after targeting the PPPP leadership, the PTI led federal government is now targeting the people of the province.