PM refuses one-year extension to Ogra chairman

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has refused to extend one-year extension to the incumbent chairman of Oil and Gas regulatory Authority (Ogra), The News has learnt.

According to well-placed sources in the Cabinet Division, a summary was sent to the PM Secretariat seeking one-year extension for Ogra Chairman Saeed Ahmad Khan who is going to retire on April 16, 2016. All the regulatory bodies, including Ogra, run under the Cabinet Division.

The prime minister, according to the sources, is not happy with the performance the Ogra chairman who is facing a host of cases in the courts of law. The sources quoted the prime minister as saying that how a person like Saeed Ahmad Khan facing cases in various courts is stillstaying as Ogra chairman when the summary from Cabinet Division seeking one-year more extension was pitched before the chief executive of the country.

When contacted, Seed Ahmad confirmed the development, saying the summary sent by the Cabinet Division asking for one-year extension was turned down by the premier in December, 2015. “It’s routine that the Cabinet Division sends the summary to the PM Secretariat on its own for one-year extension in the tenure of the incumbent chief.”

He informed that the Cabinet Division has kick started the process to select new Ogra chairman and to this effect an advertisement has also been printed in the national dailies on Sunday seeking applications from potential candidates.