SNGPL’s company secretary earns out of turn promotions, salary increases

ISLAMABAD: A female officer from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) has allegedly earned many out of turn promotions and irregular increases in salary, it was learnt on Tuesday.

According to sources, Wajiha Anwar had joined SNGPL in 2008 as Executive Law Officer with a basic salary of Rs 63,870 and her salary was revised to Rs 75,160 along with other officers in 2011. During the same year she was promoted to Grade 5 with a revised basic salary of Rs 80,420 and then two years later, in 2013, she was re-designated as Company Secretary. 

From here, she was given so many promotions which cannot be justified under law and circumstances, said sources.

In 2013, she was promoted to Grade 6 before completion of the ‘parking period’ with a revised salary of Rs 104,700. The following year her salary was once again revised to Rs 177,355 and then in 2015 she was again promoted to Grade 7. It seems her luck ended here as the accelerated promotions caught the attention of Director General (DG) Audit, they added.

“Wajiha Anwar who rose from lower grades to senior most grades within 15 years services all allegedly due to irregular promotions and salary increments,” said sources.

In a country like Pakistan, government officers can only wish to get promoted on time. This is not just to show their work and their years in service but also so that they retire in the highest possible grade. But, Anwar has received the kind of special treatment that an officer can only wish for, sources added.

According to them, the SNGPL’s HR manual dictates that a three-year service in Grade 6 is mandatory to be eligible for promotion to grade 7. Similarly, the manual clearly states that salary can be reviewed on an annual basis only. In Anwar’s case, however, the manual stands nowhere as her salary was revised 16 days after her promotion to Grade 6. Not just this but she was promoted to Grade 7 just after six months of her promotion to Grade 6. 

DG Audit’s report claims that due to the irregular increments, she was getting a basic salary of Rs 303,930 by July 2016. The same report further says that due to repeated out of turn promotions and increments, her gross salary, which also includes 45% house rent and 10% utility allowances, increased manifold.

According to more details in the copy of the audit report available with Profit, her basic salary couldn’t be more than Rs 144,695 even if she was given maximum increment as per the company’s service rules but she was paid additional Rs 6.292 million through irregularities.

Sources also claimed that Wajiha was promoted to Grade 8 but the notification of which has not been issued till date.

Inside sources claim that Wajiha had allegedly developed a nexus smartly with the private directors of SNGPL Board of Directors for all such gains. And, in return she helped them in re-electing to the board through proxies using different CNICs and fake signatures which can still be verified from the company physical records. They said that Wajiha had also allegedly helped in increasing directors’ fee from Rs 5,000 to Rs 125,000. They said during her tenure as Company Secretary, a whopping 300 meetings of the Board took place so that her favorite directors may reap maximum benefits through the revised fee. The issue of her irregular promotions is now under enquiry, said sources.

It is also learnt from other sources that Wajiha was not only working as principal advisor to the then Managing Director (MD) of SNGPL, Ali Javaid Hamdani but in fact a de facto MD on her own. During Hamdani’s tenure, she was first made GM (BD-Corporate) while additional charges of GM (Lands) and even SGM (BD) were also given to her.

Despite repeated attempts to have a conversation with Wajiha Anwar, she preferred not to appear/speak till the filing of this story.