LAHORE: Various state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are likely to have new bosses within the current month or so as the federal government has given the go-ahead to the ministries concerned to complete the legal procedure in this regard.

After the 2013 general elections, the PML-N government, as a priority, had decided to replace the heads of around 40 public sector organisations, including important companies of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, such as the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), Sui Southern GasCompany Limited (SSGC), Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL).

The government had advertised the slots formally in the print media and sought applications. However, in July 2013, the government in the light of the Supreme Court of Pakistan`s verdict, constituted a three-member independent commission, headed by Mr Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, the federal tax ombudsman (FTO), for hiring the new chief executive officers, chairmen or managing directors of such enterprises.

`Though the commission worked for some time, it reportedly appeared to be dysfunctional after its chairman was sent on leave keeping in view the Supreme Court`s verdict on the NICL scam in November 2013. The SC had sought initiation of legal action against NationalAccountability Bureau Chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry and FTO Abdul Rauf Chaudhry for creating hurdles in the probe,` a senior official told Dawn.

He said keeping in view the situation, the government had sent commission chairman (FTO) Mr Chaudhry on leave that diminished the role of the body which had been constituted under his headship to select chiefs of SOEs.

The official said since the issue led to commission`s dysfunction, the government, in the meanwhile, sought input from the law ministry for solution. Finally, the law ministry, after studying the structure and rules/regulations of the enterprises, told the government that the public sector organisations listed with the SECP or covered under company law, didn`t fall within the purview of the commission, the official said.

He said after receiving inputfrom the law ministry, the government passed the information to the ministries concerned to expedite the process of hiring the heads, an issue lying pending for the last seven months or so.

`As far as I know we can now hire the heads of all our companies/organisations directly and not through the commission. We hope that we will complete this process in a short span of time,` Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khagan Abbasi told Dawn.

According to him, the state enterprises such as SNGPL, SSGC listed with SECP can mal