Petrol crisis: On a hunt for drops of fuel

Students in south Punjab districts say they can’t appear in college tests due to fuel shortage.

MULTAN/ LAHORE: Thousands of citizens woke up early morning on Sunday to queue up at the handful of fuel stations selling fuel in the provincial capital. It has been six days since the supply of petrol began dwindling in the province. Most petrol stations in Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Kasur have cordoned off their premises.  

Obaid Ahmad, a resident of Kamoke, told The Express Tribune that he had come to Lahore with his wife in search of petrol. He said they had run out of fuel eight kilometres from Shahdara and had to drag the motorcycle all the way to a relative’s house in Shahdara. Then he took a rickshaw to go search for petrol somewhere in the city. He said that he had been unsuccessful and would now have to return home on public transport.

“I woke up early on Sunday to get petrol...it’s 2pm and I can’t find a drop of fuel anywhere,” said Muhammad Tahir. He had been standing in a queue at a petrol station near Mozang Chungi for two hours but had decided to return home. “What’s the point of waiting when there’s no fuel,” he said.

Several citizens said they had been buying petrol for as much as Rs200 per litre.



An employee at a petrol pump at Shahdara told The Express Tribune that they were selling one litre to motorcycle drivers and five litres to cars. He said they were rationing fuel in order to serve as many citizens as possible.

Most public transport and rickshaws disappeared off the roads and ones that were still operating charged twice the usual fare. Passengers and transporters were seen arguing at several wagon stops in the city. The number of people using Metro Bus and Lahore Transport Service has doubled in the past few days.

On Sunday, Pakistan Awami Tehrik slammed the government for the fuel crisis. PAT president Raheeq Ahmed Abbasi said the chief minister should resign for his inability to ensure reliable supply of fuel to the people of the province. “In 2012, Shahbaz Sharif set up a camp office at Minar-i-Pakistan to highlight people’s problems on account of load shedding...why is he hiding now?”

Protests in the Punjab

Several protest demonstrations against fuel shortage erupted in south Punjab districts on Sunday. College students and their parents held demonstrations in front of 21 petrol pumps in these districts demanding that educational institutes be closed till petrol supply was resumed. They said the December tests had been postponed earlier due to the security situation and now students were having trouble reaching their institutes due to fuel shortage.  Students of colleges in Multan, Sahiwal, Layyah, Muzafargarh, Okara, Bhakkar, Rajanpur, Bahawalnagar and Khanewal held demonstrations.

“It is compulsory for all college students to appear in the tests or our college administrations will not allow them to sit final examinations,” Ali Mohsin, a student of second year, said. He was shouting slogans against the government at Ghora Chowk, Sahiwal. “Many students could not appear in the exams on Friday and Saturday due to the fuel shortage.”

An examination comptroller at a college told The Express Tribune that attendance in the December tests had gone down to 30 per cent at the college he worked at.

PTI Multan president Ijaz Janjua said the government should either shut down colleges or provide fuel immediately. “The government should not play with the students’ futures...they are forcing students to take law into their own hands.” he said.

Higher Education Department Colleges Director Professor Shameem Arif told The Express Tribune that colleges could not be shut down because of protests. Only the provincial government or the district government had the authority to shut down colleges in a district, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2015.