Arif Rana
Even after three weeks, nobody in Pakistan even Prime Minister Imran Khan knows who is actually responsible for the oil crisis that triggered confusion and ultimately added to the miseries of the people.
The crisis is getting worse with each passing day. You can see the public gathered at the petrol pumps in almost every part of the county and getting disappointed when they read handwritten placards saying ‘Sorry no petrol’.
The crises are not new for Pakistani nation as they have been facing different nature of crises on yearly basis. Sometimes, it’s flour crisis and sometimes its sugar scam but oil shortage is different in nature. It’s chiding the people when they are already fighting the coronavirus and feeling it hard
to keep life wheel moving. This crisis also has a peculiar identity that the guilty are blaming the innocent.
If you go by the business rules, nobody other than Petroleum Division Secretary Mian Asad Hayaud Din is responsible for the oil crisis. It is his job to maintain the required level of POL products in the country under any circumstances. Mian Asad should have been held responsible for the crisis and be removed from his position before initiating a detailed inquiry to identity that who is behind the curtain.
PM Khan who has been unable to find the man in the ‘mask’, should read Rules of Business 1973. Rule 4 Section (1) says, ‘Each division shall consist of a secretary to the government and of such other officials subordinate to him as the government determine. The secretary shall be the official lead of the division and shall be responsible for its efficient administration and discipline and for the proper conduct of business assigned to the division under Rule 3 (3) and for the due execution of the sanctioned policy’.
Directorate General of Oil DG Alif Jan Afridi is another main character who is equally responsible for the oil shortage. Being the DG, he holds committee meeting on monthly basis to review the stock position of the POL products, besides monitoring performance of the refineries. He acts on behalf of the secretary.
The oil marketing companies (OMCs) which are instrumental in creating the oil shortage are the third player in the arena. Almost all the OMCs except PSO took part in this game. The OMCs became a part of this crisis because they knew that they can go scot-free after cheating the nation and extort billions of rupees with the connivance of the government officials.
For public knowledge, following OMCs, according to the initial inquiry report, are responsible for the crisis which the officials claimed was artificial, namely Shell Pakistan Limited, Total Parco Pakistan Limited, Attock Petroleum Limited (APL), Attock Oil Pakistan Limited, Byco Go, Hascol, Puma and Bakery Energy (BE).
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) administration should also be investigated as they are supposed to be a watchdog for checking the availability of mandatory stocks with the OMCs.
For the first two weeks of the crisis, when the concerned authorities should have acted against the hoarders and profiteers and take remedial measures to ensure smooth oil supply, they did not bother to notice.
Instead, the officials simply ignored the media reports pointing out the oil shortage in first week of June. These reports had also highlighted the dubious characters who were supposed to ensure the smooth supply of petroleum products across Pakistan. The crisis had actually begun much before the government announcement of cutting down POL prices on May 30, following slowdown of the global economy and subsequent downfall in brunt oil rates. Actually, the monopoly of oil marketing companies is tantamount to challenging the writ of the government.
Here comes the role of the government. Its concerned officials should have sensed the plan of the oil marketing companies and warned them of severe action in case they do not meet the market requirement. But how can you expect something good if the top officials of the Petroleum Division do not keep national interest supreme. There could be two reasons of inaction on the part of the senior officials of the Petroleum Division one – incompetence and the second is ‘vested interests’. Even a layman cannot believe that a Grade-22 officer, having a life-long experience, could not assess the interruption in demand and supply chain, but the most probably it’s ‘vested interests’ which worsened the situation, and this is the reality.
When contacted Petroleum Ministry, its spokesperson Sajid Qazi claimed that the OMCs were responsible for creating artificial shortage in the country and they will face the music. He, however, did not comment on a question asking for the role of Petroleum Division top officials including Secretary Mian Asad Hayaud Din and Director General Oil Dr Shafiur Rehman Afridi. Visibly, these two senior government officials are responsible for the whole crisis but it seems that they are under an umbrella.
