Scapegoats at PSO

Least the govt could have done was to manage PSO as would a responsible shareholder,instead of looking for a scapegoat

When it comes to matters of energy policy, the Nawaz Administration appears to have made it a habit of shooting itself in the foot. The latest unforced error comes in the form of dissolving the management board of the state-owned Pakistan State Oil, the largest oil company in the country. Ostensibly, this move was undertaken to hold those allegedly responsible for the petrol crisis in Punjab to account. However, we fail to see how removing the entire top management team of the country’s biggest energy company will do anything to solve the problem. There are two possibilities for why the government would undertake so blatantly problematic a move: either it genuinely believes that removing a large number of officials from their posts is an adequate response to the energy crisis, or they cynically believe that being seen to undertake what appears to be tough actions will be perceived by the public as a heroic attempt to solve the problem.



The least the government could have done was to manage PSO as would a responsible shareholder, instead of behaving like a populist government looking for a scapegoat. The PSO management, far from being responsible for the crisis, had been warning the government for months of an impending petrol shortage in the country. Meanwhile, they were being hampered by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s obsessive need to meet his foreign exchange reserves targets, no matter what the cost to the economy. Mr Dar prevented PSO from buying dollars to pay its international suppliers in December because that would have lowered the foreign exchange reserves. Meanwhile, his cabinet colleague Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif has been unable to do much about the massive expansion of electricity theft, which is what precipitated the financial crunch at PSO that ultimately caused the petrol crisis. Yet even as hardworking employees of PSO — who had the foresight to warn of the problem — are being removed from their positions, the cabinet ministers most directly responsible for the affair are being absolved of any guilt. How does the Nawaz Administration expect us to believe its promises of competent government when it so cynically avoids accountability for its friends?

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th,  2015.

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