Abid Ashfaque made PPL’s acting MD, CEO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has appointed Abid Ashfaque Malick acting managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company with immediate effect, a notification said on Friday.

The company made the announcement to the Pakistan Stock Exchange through a notification signed by the company secretary Ali Jaffar. PPL notified that its MD and CEO Moin Raza Khan had retired from his post, which was followed by appointment of Malick as acting MD until Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appointed a regular CEO of the company. The prime minister will be taking interviews for the appointment next week, the notification added.

As per sources from the petroleum ministry, the PM had constituted a 5-member committee, headed by Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, to make appointments of regular directors for PPL and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL). The committee held a session at the Cabinet Division for interviews and submitted their recommendations to the PM and the Cabinet Division.

In the cabinet committee, Khuwaja Muhammad Asif, PM’s energy taskforce chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik, Federal Secretary for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ali Raza Bhutta, and PM’s adviser on Establishment Division Fawad Hasan Fawad held interviews for both institutions.

Moin Raza Khan had been the acting MD of PPL for around 3 years, and OGDCL too has had an acting MD for a year. The recommendations submitted to the cabinet for the postings include Imran Abbasi on first for the regular MD of PPL, followed by Moin Raza on second and Sikandar Memon on third. For OGDCL, the committee has recommended Zahid Mir on first for regular MD, followed by Nadeem Bajwa on second and Haroon Rasheed on third. According to sources, the Prime Minister will finalise names for regular positing of the directors on the basis of the recommendations submitted by the committee in a few days.