Pakistan remains hostage to petrol shortage

Despite the passage of eight days, the people of Pakistan are facing the petrol and shortage as supply couldn’t be fully restored, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

There are long queues of vehicles at filling stations in Lahore with motorists desperate to find petrol – a scene not limited to the provincial capital.

As far as Karachi is concerned, many filling stations no more have any petrol as 50 percent of these are without any supply. It is because of the fact that different oil marketing companies haven’t procured new supply.

To make the situation even worse, high octane too is now in short supply as citizens opted for the expensive fuel amid the petrol shortage on weekend.

Meanwhile, the PSO (Pakistan State Oil) has slashed the high octane price by Rs15 after which the new rate for consumers is Rs142 per litre.

In Faisalabad, citizens have nowhere to go since the prices of POL prices were slashed – a step which was supposed to bring some peace to their lives – as they spent precious time at filling stations waiting for their turn. In fact, several filling stations are still closed as there is no supply of petrol and other POL products.

And it is the bike riders who are most affected by this situation as they move here and there in search of the missing petrol in this heat.

But Rawalpindi continues to be one of the worst affected cities by this petrol and diesel shortage as petrol in available only the filling stations run by the PSO.

It is not just big cities as petrol is in shortage of supply across the country. Many filling stations in Dera Ghazi do not have petrol while 80 percent of these are without the fuel in Muzaffargarh.

In Alipur tehsil of Muzaffargarh district, the filling stations have stopped selling petrol after the government’s decision to reduce prices, as people say the fuel is being sold for Rs150 to Rs200 per litre in the black market.

Similar is the case in Gujranwala, Kalat and other towns and cities as the government and the oil marketing companies are blaming each other for this crisis.

The owner of a filling station in Kalat told 24NewsHD TV channel that they had contacted the marketing company several times but there was response, resulting in the current shortage.

Earlier on Friday, the oil marketing companies held the government responsible for the situation and also demanded an increase in the POL prices.

In response to a show-cause notice issued by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), the marketing companies said the current situation was a result of the government’s decision to ban the import of petroleum products in March without any planning.

They also repeatedly requested the government to allow the import but to no avail, the companies said in their reply to the show-cause notice.

According to the oil marketing companies, the POL prices are much higher in other countries when compared with Pakistan and the government should announce new rates after every 15 days.

The Ogra had issued the show-cause notice to the oil marketing companies as the country is experiencing a severe shortage of petrol. An interesting fact is that some experts had warned about the issue earlier but the government did not pay any attention to that.

On the other hand, the Competition Commission of Pakistan has started a probe after taking notice of the petroleum products shortage and demanding higher prices for high octane.

Meanwhile, the Petroleum Division claimed that there was a sufficient supply of POL product available in the country and they had raised the shortage issue with the Ogra on several occasions.