Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Nadeem Babar has been asked to step down from his post on orders from Prime Minister Imran Khan, Federal Minister For Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said on Friday.
This decision was taken to ensure transparency in the the findings of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in a probe launched on the direction of the prime minister to determine reasons behind the shortage of petroleum in the country.
The minister stressed that neither SAPM on Petroleum Babar nor Secretary Petroleum Mian Asad Hayaud Din has been found guilty in the petroleum crisis occurred last year, however, they have been asked to resign for a transparent investigation into the matter.
Adding to Asad’s point, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood said that Babar and secretary petroleum have been asked to resign so as not to affect the inquiry.
“We forwarded our recommendations to the prime minister, after which he asked for some additional information. When some more information came to the fore, we were given the go-ahead to share our recommendations,” said Asad.
“It was said about some of the people sitting in administrative positions that their background is such or they don’t have the capability or ability to be sitting on those positions. The petroleum division has been told to look at those administrative decisions and quickly report to the PM after making those decisions,” the minister told the presser.
“The FIA will probe the criminal negligence in the entire episode as they have been tasked to bring forward evidence in this regard,” he said adding that the FIA would bring forward the report carrying out a forensic audit within 90 days.
Moreover, he informed media persons in the detailed briefing that the government has decided to to make the ministerial committee report on fuel crisis 2020 public.
The federal minister said that the petroleum division had previously dropped its responsibilities on Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and that there was a need to end this ambiguity.
“To end that ambiguity, a law will be made and whatever amendments are required [will be done], so it is completely clear who has the authority and responsibility,” he said, adding that during the investigation into the fuel crisis, OGRA stated that some tasks were to be done by the Petroleum Division and vice versa, “and both were quoting different sections of the law”.
“This is a message from Prime Minister Imran Khan to the mafia that their time is up,” the planning and development minister maintained.
The minister on the occasion said that a number of facets for improvement have been identified and will be reported to the division, after which it will makes its action plan.
Answering a question, Asad said that there is no doubt in believing that the responsibilities given to some state institutions were not duly fulfilled.
“We have to find out why the institutions could not perform and ascertain whether this is due to the prevalence of corruption,” he said, adding that it is important to discover the names of the people who have not been doing their jobs properly and whether they have any accomplices.
Besides this, the petroleum division has also written a letter to the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) in a bid to carry out the forensic audit of oil marketing companies.
The letter was written in order to unearth the involvement of companies in the fuel crisis in the country during June 2020. The letter from the Petroleum Division while attributing to the letter on March 16, directed to conduct the forensic audit in order to unearth as to which company befitted from the hoarding.
It is pertinent to mention here to mention that this announcement comes shortly after Information Minister Shibli Faraz had talked about a possible federal cabinet reshuffle.
Information Minister Senator Faraz had told a local news outlet on Friday that PM Imran is likely to replace several ministers and pick up some new faces as he is reportedly not happy with some key ministers’ performance and has already conveyed that only those would stay in the cabinet who can deliver.
The information minister said that discussions were still underway as to whose portfolio should be replaced with whom and why. “Performance is the parameter,” he said, adding that potential was the other factor.
