ISLAMABAD: Facing legal and regulatory challenges in the petroleum sector, the government on Thursday inducted member finance in the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to complete its three member quorum.

Except for a brief period, Ogra has been functioning without a quorum for almost two years now to take major regulatory decisions.

As a major consequence, the two gas utilities have not been able to authenticate their annual accounts for over two years as required under laws of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

In the absence of the compulsory quorum, the government too has been running the af fairs of liquefied natural gas, including its import s, pricing, sale and invoicing, without valid legal cover and had been relying instead on temporary committees and executive orders.

On Thursday, the newly appointed member Noorul Haque formally joined the position of member finance Ogra. The four member Ogra is required to take regulatory decisions with a minimum strength of three members. Haque was working as Senior Executive Director (SED) Finance and Accounts at Ogra before being elevated to the slot of Member (Finance).

He has over 30 years of experience in accounting and finance, according to Ogra spokesman.

Haque served GIK Institute of Engineering Science and Technology for almost ten years before joining the Ogra in 2003.

Interestingly, Haque would give up a higher salary and perks of senior executive director Ogra (which is a permanent assignment drawing over Rs400,000 per month) and instead accept a three-year tenure job of member finance attracting around Rs275,000 per month.

Informed sources, however, said the government is now working on improving the perks and privileges of regulator`s members to MP-1 scale instead of MP-II.

The government had earlier selected another candidate Anwarul Haque, a general manager of Wapda as member finance Ogra, but he had declined to take the job after the selection process because of government moves towards the proposed merger of two energy sectorregulatorsinto one.