Speaker for proper investigation into NTS record
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday assured the National Assembly that there would be no increase in the price of natural gas.
Replying to a call attention notice, he said the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) was in practice of revising the prices after every six months but the PML-N government had increased the price of natural gas only once in the last three years.
He said all the provinces were facing gas shortage and the government was taking several steps to end gas loadshedding. He added that there was neither a ban nor a backlog of new gas connections for domestic consumers; however, there was a restriction for the high-rise buildings.
During the session, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq referred the matter of National Testing Service (NTS) to the committee concerned for proper investigation into its record and submitting a report within 30 days.
The issue was raised by PTI’s Siraj Khan who said money was being minted from all those candidates who applied for various government jobs under the NTS. He said in his constituency NA-6, Nowshera, 11,000 candidates applied for just 11 posts. He questioned how a jobless person could afford spending Rs 2,000 to 3,000 every month on NTS.
The speaker said it was an important issue and the House should know about the money collected through the NTS.
Two bills were also introduced in the National Assembly, which included the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 [The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2016]. The second bill was to provide for the creation of security interests over movable property and to establish a secured transactions registry [The Financial Institutions (Secured Transactions) Bill, 2016].
Minister of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch informed the House that the federal government had announced providing employment to two sons of Pervez Khan, the security guard martyred in the Mardan Nadra office suicide attack. He said compensation to heirs of Mardan blast victims would also be given.
The National Assembly, on the occasion, offered Fateha for the victims of Mardan bombing and National Assembly’s former additional secretary Junaid Iqbal.
During the day, newly-elected PTI legislator Jahangir Khan Tareen also took oath as Members National Assembly, which was administered by the speaker.
Separately, the sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources summoned MOL Managing Director Akos Grosz and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Chief Secretary Hammad Owais Agha for the next meeting to get a briefing on appointments, bonus and royalty issues.
The body criticised the management of MOL, an oil and gas company, for not following the prescribed rules while making appointments and depriving the people of KP of their employment rights.
It warned to invoke sub-rule (4) of rule 227 of Rules of Procedure that allowed the committee to exercise power of civil court “for enforcing the attendance of any person and compelling the production of documents”.
The committee observed that advertisements for recruitment were not published appropriately in the national dailies as placing handwritten announcements on websites had no legality.
The committee thoroughly discussed the issues of skilled and unskilled jobs for locals and development schemes funded by oil and gas exploration and production companies “through CSR, bonuses and royalty” specifically utilisation of royalty and its related issues.
