ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister, Imran Khan , on Friday sacked two main characters… special advisor , Nadeem Babar and Petroleum secretary Asad Hayuddin , for their involvement in last year’s oil crisis.
Oil companies had created oil crisis in June 2020 in the country when oil prices had crashed in the world market.
This criminal act of the oil marketing companies not only deprived the consumers of cheap petroleum products in hard times, but also caused loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequers as the act slowed down oil sale in the country for at least one and half months.
This crisis had eroded Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaf (PTI) credibility enormously. It also added massively to the on-going criticism on Imran Khan government both from the opposition and the public.
The PTI government felt the heat of the growing criticism and ordered the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to hold an indepth investigation into the matter and pinpoint all those characters that were involved in creating shortage of petroleum products .
The FIA conducted inquiry into the case and held Nadeem Babar …the prime minister’s speical advisor on Petroleum and Petroleum secretary, Asad Hayuddin, responsible of criminal negligence that triggered oil crisis in the country.
The FIA also held two other senior officials …director general Oil of the Petroleum ministry, Dr Afridi and Imran Ali Abro, a mysterious character of the Petroleum ministry, equally responsible of playing criminal role that encourged oil marketing companies to stop supply of oil in the country.
Although its a delayed act, but the prime minister did take action against two characters of oil crisis but no action took against other two characters who, as per FIA report , played criminal role to facilitate the oil marketing companies to take undue advantage of Corona crisis and create an artificial shortage of oil in the country.
Federal minister, Asad Umar, announced here at a press conference on Friday to send all characters of oil crisis to jail which may help PTI government improve its governance in the remaining tenure, but Asad Umar as a close political aide to the prime minister should take notice as to who is protecting other key characters of the Petroleum ministry like Dr Afridi and Imran Ali Abro who , according to FIA report, were instrumental in encourging oil marketing companies to take a free ride to stop supply of oil to the country in May- June last year.
To show its seriousness to catch the bulls of powerful oil mafia by the horns , the PTI government should fix -up oil companies involved in the oil shortage crisis of the last year. The government should also take punitive action against Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) authorities for not taking prompt action to ensure oil supply in the country in the time of crisis.
