However, unlike popular belief, drivers of Nato oil tankers are not the only ones involved in this lucrative business, police investigations have revealed.
The Sihala and Koral areas police have arrested more than 15 people for selling petrol and diesel to unauthorised dealers in the last two months. The arrested people, among others, include truck and bus drivers belonging to the army and other government agencies.
Koral police also arrested five people last September for running unauthorised sale points for stolen petrol and diesel. Another three suspects were arrested from PWD Colony where they were not only storing petrol and diesel, but also selling it in the black market.
The suspects told police that they were purchasing the fuel mainly from the drivers of trucks and buses of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC).
“The drivers of these government vehicles siphon off petrol and diesel from the fuel tanks and sell it to the unauthorised dealers at half the market rate,” said a police investigator.
“I caught the driver of a PAEC bus red-handed selling diesel to Billa,” he added. Billa, or Taimoor Abbas, ran an illegal fuel depot right under the nose of the authorities near the Fauji Camp in Tarlai Khurd before he was caught.
The suspects had established a collection point in Kahuta to give easy access to the PAEC drivers. From there the fuel was transferred to storage points in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
In a raid last month on an unauthorised sale point, the Koral police arrested a suspect Nasrullah from Alipur in the outskirts of the city. Sihala police, too, arrested a suspect and recovered two drums with hundreds of litres of diesel from his illegal depot.
The suspects told the police that they were selling fuel to commuters and dealers at market rates in areas of the city where there were no filling stations.
Then a few days ago, a suspect, Babar Hussain, was caught red-handed from Sihala Baghian while selling petrol from his oil company tanker to a black market dealer.
On the information provided by Hussain, police also arrested Amir Shehzad and Hamid Ali Shah, the black market dealers who were selling fuel to commuters without permits for the business.
“The drivers of the oil tankers get their tankers filled from Pakistan State Oil (PSO) depot in Sihala, steal 30-40 litres from every delivery which they sell to dealers like Hussain,” an investigation officer told The Express Tribune. What started as a genuine business turned into an illegal activity after the cancellation of permits, according to police officials.
“Small scale fuel sale points cropped up on Lehtrar Road right up to Kotli Sattian because there were no petrol stations on this route,” said Abdur Razzaq, the SHO of Koral police station.
While officials say the large number of customers makes it hard for them stop the sale of stolen fuel, police is not without blame either. Police officials, too, have claimed their ‘share’ of the loot.
“At least 14 police officials were booked [a few days back] for selling fuel in the black market,” said a police official, on condition of anonymity.
But getting rid of these illegal fuel depots is not easy. A large number of groups are involved in the trade and, police officials feel, only a large-scale operation may wipe out the illegal activity.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2010.
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