Amir Tufail likely as permanent head of SNGPL

Aftab Ahmed

The Petroleum Division has moved a summary to Prime Minister Imran Khan with a recommendation to appoint Amir Tufail as the regular new head of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company Limited–SNGPL.

Sources told Newstodays.com that the Petroleum Division has sent a panel of three candidates and Amir Tufail had been named at top of the list in order of merit. They said that the Prime Minister’s office would send a panel of candidates to Intelligence agencies for clearance.

They said that a panel of candidates would be tabled before the cabinet for approval after seeking clearance from intelligence agencies.

Officials have different views about Amir Tufail. Some say that Tufail has experience in finance and lacked the operational experience of the SNGPL. However, the other officials say that he has worked as an acting managing director and performed duties well to run the company.

Amir Tufail is deputy managing director (DMD) and is holding currently in charge of managing director (MD) SNGPL. Other names include Suhail Gulzar senior managing director SNGPL and Ali Hamdani.

Two candidates Amir Tufail and Suhail Gulzar are regular employees of SNGPL and are foreign nationals. However, the third candidate Mr. Hamdani is facing a case in National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Meanwhile, Mr. Hamdani has working experience with a German firm–Siemens and has been appointed as chief executive officer (CEO) of National Power Parks Management Company (Private) Limited (NPPMC).

The human Resource (HR) committee of the board of directors of SNGPL had shortlisted fifteen candidates and interviewed five candidates for the post of regular head of SNGPL.

These names included Amir Tufail, Suhail Gulzar, Ali Hamdani, Shahbaz, and Amjad Janjua. However, the board recommended three names include Amir Tufail, Suhail Gulzar, and Ali Hamdani.

The Board of directors of SNGPL had advertised the post three times to hire a regular managing director of MD SNGPL.

Earlier, the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division) had vetted advertisements to hire new managing directors of SNGPL and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC). Both companies had given advertisements in March this year.

However, SNGPL dominated by private shareholders members had suddenly scrapped the process and gave another advertisement that resulted in blocking hundreds of candidates for the position.

In the new advertisement, SNGPL had introduced a condition of age 52 to 62 years. This resulted in blocking those candidates below the age of 52 from applying for the post. Under this process, only six candidates qualified for the post.

Keeping the situation in view, the SNGPL board of directors had scrapped the process of hiring the managing director and decided to start the afresh process again. In response to a new advertisement, 15 candidates were shortlisted and five candidates had been a potential candidate for the post