GILGIT: A shortage of diesel in Gilgit is compounding people’s misery, who are already faced with persistent power outages and freezing cold.
Criticising the government for inaction, people contacted by this correspondent agreed that owners of petrol pumps and oil tankers are colluding to earn extraordinary profits.
The supply of fossil fuels has never been smooth – even adulterated petrol and diesel are sold at 30-40 per cent extra price on the black market.
According to some, pump owners earn millions by selling their fuel quota to entrepreneurs in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and save nearly Rs60,000 a truckload in freight charges.
People believe that the administration “is fully cooperating with pump owners” in this connection.
Giligt, which is smack in the middle of the region rich in power production opportunities, is currently facing power outages of 20 hours.
Currently, almost all petrol pumps in Gilgit town are without fuel because of the government’s failure to settle an issue as small as the provision of fuel for the past couple of months.
Temperatures in Gilgit and Skardu have ranged between -11°C and -17 °C over most of this time.
Interestingly, the authorities are not questioning the suppliers despite a perpetual fuel crisis, which has led to a halt in local public transport in addition to other inconveniences in the freezing cold.
Some critics are of the opinion that the government is involved in creating this mess and “has a share in the profit”.
“The possibility of officials having their share in the profit can’t be ruled out,” said PML-N’s regional president Hafizur Rehman.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 28th, 2010.
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