Shahid Khaqan Abbasi– The story of Corruption

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has spent many laborious years on various job positions, cementing his reputation as a

corrupt man. His journey for corruption initiated when he was appointed the Chariman for PIA by our very own Nawaz Sharif. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi wasted no time in putting his devious mind to work and ordering 12 new Boeing Airplanes for PIA. On the surface, such a step seems innocent and beneficial for the national airlines. But upon more investigation, it was found that Mr. Shahid Abbasi dropped some extremely vital, spare parts of the Boeings and replaced with them poor quality Boeing components, sneakily pocketing the money he saved by purchasing cheaper, low-quality components. In another scandal, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was also accused for importing 200 computers allegedly for the airlines operations but were misappropriated, costing the national exchequer an astounding Rs. 11 million loss. However, the court acquitted Mr. Abbasi on the basis of lack of incriminating evidence, even though the prosecution produced seven witnesses before the trail court. However, one cannot say for sure that some political influence was not used in this acquittal.

Furthermore, he also aided our Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in one of the biggest examples of blatant disregard of public feelings. In the 1997’s Nawaz Sharif government, Nawaz Sharif expended all his efforts in convincing expatriate Pakistanis to send their dollars to Pakistan. In stark contrast, the Prime Minister himself- costing the national exchequer a whooping Rs. 110 crore- went on 28 foreign trips for “governance” purposes. Nawaz Sharif had also promised to return the special Boeing plane to PIA for the airline’s commercial operations. But like most of his other promise, these were just empty words. In a glaring display of breaking his promise to PIA, Nawaz Sharif- with the help of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi- made a 1.8 million USD renovation of his aircraft, transforming it into a palace of luxuries. Hypocritically, Nawaz Sharif would always preach lessons of simple living and austerity to the general public, but would not accept anything less that specially-cooked , seven-course meals that were prepared by a cook hired by Shahid Khaqan Abbasi specifically to meet the dietary demand of the Prime Minister, including the well-known favorite of Nawaz Sharif, “Gajrela”.

Another example of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s loot and plunder is his activities as the owner of a private air line called Air Blue. Recently, Air Blue has resolved to start operations from Birmingham (Britain) to Pakistan from 28^th September 2014.  In a manipulating move, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is withdrawing all PIA management staff from PIAs office in Britain in order to create a prolonged management vacuum designed to put his airline in a more favorable light and take over the market share of PIA. Similar policies have been carried out by the current Petroleum Minister numerous times, proving to be disastrous for Pakistan’s national asset, PIA, but Shahid Abbasi seems to be least concerned about the consequences of his greed-ridden decisions. An instance in 2013 in which the Joint Action Committee of PIA Employees (JACPIAE) accused Shahid Khaqan of continuing to interfere in PIA’s internal affairs while he was running his own private airline, resulting in a conflict of interests. Shahid Abbasi influenced various operational decisions of PIA that has resulted in the downfall of the national airlines.

Lastly, in the tragic 2010 Air Blue plane crash on the Margallah Hilss, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also displayed his true colors and concern for the people of Pakistan, the people he has an obligation to serve. When the horrific air crash happened, this blue-eyed boy of Nawaz Sharif completed disappeared from the scene, only gracing the public with his presence and empty condolences after three days. Such is the extent of Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s indifference.  

Such examples of Shahid Khaqan’s callous nature only makes me apprehensive as to what good this man can do for this country as the Petroleum Minister. He has already made the people of Punjab and KPK suffer for more than a week due to critical petrol shortage brought about by Mr. Khaqan’s poor governance and negligence of petroleum management in the favor of the poorly designed LNG deal with Qatar. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi seems to be in a hurry to sign this deal despite the fact that the new gas reserves that have been discovered in Sindh.

Posted by M Butt Lahore at 11:46 

 Read More at http://shahidabbasi.blogspot.com/

Pakistan inks LNG deal worth $16b with Qatar

Commercial contract to be signed with Qatar Gas 2. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: 

Pakistan and Qatar have inked a government-to-government (G2G) deal for the award of a $16 billion contract for LNG supply from a Qatar-based firm without going through the mandatory bidding process.

“The petroleum ministry has now provided details regarding G2G deal with Qatar to import LNG which was effective from March 2015,” officials said. The details of the deal were revealed by petroleum ministry officials to a committee constituted by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

Govt mulls forming ‘Pakistan LNG Limited’

Earlier, the petroleum ministry had sought ECC approval for Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to execute the sales-purchase agreement with Qatar Gas 2 (QG2) as seller following the government-to-government agreement. But the approval was deferred following a question raised by the law secretary about the deal with Doha.

Officials said the law secretary would present a report regarding the LNG deal with Qatar on government-to-government basis in the upcoming meeting, enabling the economic decision-making body to approve the General Sale Purchase Agreement (SPA), a commercial contract to be signed between PSO and QG2. They said that PSO had also imported six cargoes of LNG from Qatar in line with the G2G deal.

Officials said that price of LNG had been linked with a direct percentage of Brent crude oil and under current price of Brent the value of potential LNG supply under SPA amounted to around US$ 16 billion.

The period of contract will last till December 2030. However, a price review provision which allows two parties Islamabad and Doha to seek a price review after ten years has been built in the contract, with the two countries maintaining the right to terminate the Sales Purchase Agreement (SPA) in case they fail to reach consensus on price revision.

Under the agreement, PSO, a public sector company designated by the government, would receive supply of 1.5 million tons of LNG per year from QG2 and the supply would be enhanced to 3 million tons per year from the second year. The core business of PSO is oil but it is now going into a new business line of LNG.

Economic decision making body was expected to allow PSO to sell the LNG to the gas utility companies including Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Line Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC).The PSO may also be authorised to sell LNG to third party consumers.

Multi-million dollar contract: Gunvor wins LNG deal race, will be PSO’s supplier

Qatar had desired in its original plan that Qatargas would supply LNG through their company Qatar Liquefied Gas Company 3 (QG3) under the SPA. However, Qatargas had now proposed for LNG supplies under SPA through QG2.

The new proposed arrangement had deprived US based firm ConocoPhillips to capture Pakistan’s market as shareholder in QG3, which is a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum, ConocoPhillips and Mitsui.

Published in The Express Tribune,