Fuel fiasco

At a time last year when the world had such large stocks of petrol that it was selling at its lowest price in years and buyers were lining up to acquire the commodity, Pakistan faced a situation where buyers struggled to find even a drop of the supply. This issue, which also includes the problem with gas prices, is now being investigated by the FIA on the orders of the federal cabinet. The FIA has been asked to investigate the matter of who with connections to the government may have benefited from the petrol crisis and how this was achieved. Meanwhile, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Energy Nadeem Babar has been asked to step down from his post pending the inquiry. All this follows a report that was completed last year on the orders of the Lahore High Court. The court had ordered an investigation into the disappearance of petrol from the market in June, at a time when the price of the commodity had meant countries had bought it in March, April and May and kept a big amount in stock to be sold at low rates or lower than usual rates to customers.

Pakistan on the other hand, according to the petroleum ministry gave orders to oil companies not to import petrol, despite the low prices, on the basis that storage facilities and refineries already had plentiful supply and would be able to meet the country's needs in the coming months. This of course led to a shortage of petrol in June 2020. At that time, the state-owned Pakistan State Oil was forced to buy petrol at a higher rate and then sell it to citizens at lower prices. And citizens were forced to buy highly expensive High-Octane fuel. It now transpires that private petrol companies profited from this by not selling petrol when it was available to the world at low rates and instead keeping it back till it could be sold at much higher prices. This is a ploy we have seen before in many places, including our own country.

We hope this matter will not just end at the door of the now former SAPM. The fact is that for months the government has been covering this issue up. In fact, in the face of consistent reporting on this issue by the media, especially Geo News, the government has been blaming and attacking journalists and the media instead of owning up to the problem. There also reports that the maritime ministry, also under the FIA's orbit of investigation, was asked to build a huge storage facility to store cheap petrol. However, Ali Zaidi, the minister for the ministry says that he had put this proposal before the petroleum ministry and other powers suggesting the storage facility be built – but that his proposal was rejected. Quite clearly, a huge scam took place before the watching eyes of the country's leadership. From the petrol crisis to the wheat crisis to the sugar crisis, there is ample and clear evidence that there is an issue with how things have been handled. Only deep-rooted reforms and regulation can help this in the long term. For the shorter term, we need clarity on the many questions that are now screaming to be answered.