Gas in our minds

We are still not clear about why fuel pumps ran dry earlier this month in Punjab and parts of K-P

We are still not clear about why fuel pumps ran dry earlier this month in Punjab and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and we are still unaware as to what the government has done to ensure that there will not be a recurrence in the days to come.

Neither does our government know much about this. At least this is the conclusion we can make from the statements and actions of our PM and his ministers, some of whom still think it was an attempt to discredit the government, nothing less.

An inquiry committee constituted by the prime minister has blamed the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for being responsible for the crisis. At the same time, the minister of petroleum has admitted he is responsible.  But the minister has also blamed the media, beggars and the public as being behind the crisis.

The Prime Minister, who cancelled his visit to Davos owing to the crisis, has vowed strict action against those who are found guilty. But short of the suspension of four bureaucrats, almost all of whom will soon resume their positions or be reassigned, not much has happened.

Now for a recap: it was a week after the crisis erupted that the government announced that it would take strict measures to address the problem.  In this time, while fights erupted at petrol pumps in parts of Punjab, the prime minister decided to go off to Saudi Arabia to inquire after the health of the ailing King.

And when the PM leaves the country, all administrative decisions are simply put on hold. So only once he returned last Saturday did we get the announcement that the secretary petroleum and three other high officials had been suspended.  And that action would be taken.

The only action that we saw over the next few days was at petrol pumps across Punjab and parts of KP where people fought to get fuel. Petrol was sold in the black market but the government did nothing to stop any of this. In fact, apart from a couple of policemen at most petrol pumps, there was no effort on the part of the government to instill some order so that fuel supply, even if short, could be distributed in an orderly manner.

But the blame game was on. In a follow-up meeting at his palace in Raiwind, prime minister Sharif’s main concern was not why the crisis occurred in the first place but why it only affected the Punjab province.  By this time, the media had started to report on the low reserves of furnace oil stocks.

Some predicted that the petrol crisis would be followed by a power crisis because the scarcity of furnace oil would affect power generation across the country.  Mercifully we were spared that, although we are still not clear on what the actual stock position is.

What came next was too good to be believed. Finance minister Ishaq Dar told the media that he believed that the crisis was in fact a deep rooted conspiracy against the government.

Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was more forthcoming when he addressed a press conference and admitted that he was responsible for the crisis as his ministry had not anticipated the huge increase in the demand of petrol across the country. Abbasi claimed that the fuel demand had risen by 30 per cent in a month in Pakistan as international oil prices dipped. Despite assuming responsibility for the debacle, Abbasi never offered to resign nor was he asked to do so by the PM.

Now who do we believe? Dar, our senior most minister who has the charge of one of the most sensitive ministries in the country and should be careful of what he says and when, or the responsible minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who admitted that it was his ministry’s fault? If we believe one, then the other is lying.

The PM has hinted that millions were made in fuel purchases but we are yet to see evidence or action of this. The issue of circular debt, in which the government pumped billion when it came to power in 2013, has once again resurfaced. No effort is made to fix things. Only to apply cosmetic touches. In other words, we are back to square one.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th,  2015.

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