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Thursday March 28, 2024

PTI raises uproar on minister’s remark about Imran

By Muhammad Anis
January 15, 2016

Khaqan claims Imran telling lies on LNG deal; PTI seeks apology from minister

ISLAMABAD: The lower house of parliament on Thursday witnessed an uproar as parliamentarians of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) clashed with Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi on the issue of the Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA) of LNG with Qatar.

The pandemonium in the House started when the federal minister, responding to a calling attention notice, accused the PTI chairman of publicly telling lies on the LNG agreement with Qatar. “I categorically reject the false allegations of their leader who has been telling lies in the media,” he said.

The remarks of the minister invited the wrath of PTI members who also retaliated with similar remarks. They raised slogans of “Go Nawaz Go” and “Go Khaqaan Go”, ignoring requests from the chair to take their seats.

The back-benchers belonging to the ruling party and the PTI also occupied seats in front rows to register their participation in the episode and continued exchanging remarks.

“I will adjourn the proceedings of the house if you do not take your seats,” Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said adding that he would expunge the words of liar (Jhoottay) and lie (Jhoot) from the proceedings.

The PTI parliamentarians demanded that the minister apologise for his remarks against them and their leadership. Abbasi, however, said he would apologise only when their top leader tendered an apology for levelling baseless allegations against him.

He observed the issue had been raised in the two Houses of the Parliament time and again saying the issue was important but was being used for political purposes. Speaking on the call attention notice, Dr Shireen Mazari and Jahangir Tareen said they had been raising objections on the issue as there was no transparency in the LNG deal. “We also want to know if a person namely Saifur Rehman has also been involved in the deal or not,” Tareen said.

Abbasi said the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has approved the signing of the LNG Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA) with Qatar Gas Operating Company-2 for a period of 15 years and authorised PSO to execute the SPA under government-to-government arrangements after completing the due process.

However, he insisted that the SP price approved by the ECC could only be disclosed once the agreement was signed with the Qatari company. “But I take the responsibility that the whole process has been transparent and no middleman was involved in reaching the agreement,” he said.

The minister maintained that they had reached the best LNG deal with Qatar and the same would be imported at a price lower than the existing one and it would be the cheapest in Asia. “Along with addressing the energy crisis, the import of LNG from Qatar will result in saving of billions of dollars,” he said.

He said that the power houses were not pressurised to purchase the LNG. "There is no question of corruption in the process of reaching an agreement with the Qatar company,” he said.

Tareen, however, alleged that the power houses were not showing the contract and were forced to purchase LNG. He said the managing director of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and his deputy were removed from their posts when they refused to sign the SNGPL deal.