PM’s Petroleum Adviser Dr Asim Hussain has warned that if the CNG stations did not reopen, the petrol and diesel for 3.5 million vehicles was not there. Speaking to a private TV channel, he also said that the original decision to set up CNG stations was wrong, which raised another question of why the government facilitated the conversion of vehicles to gas saying that it was an environment-friendly fuel. But apart from that, the statement about the failure to import enough petrol or diesel for converted vehicles shows that there has been a failure to explore and exploit fresh gas reserves, even though there are proven reserves which can meet our requirements and which are known to exceed the Sui gas deposits. This blinkered approach has been reflected in the foot-dragging over the Iranian gas pipeline, of which the gas would go towards power generation. Power, through which the whole industrial sector derives the ability to function and provide jobs, also depends on gas or oil for thermal generation. Going by what Dr Asim said, that will be the next target of shortage. What he said does not conceal the fact that this government, as well as its predecessors, had not acted even to initiate the process of exploiting fresh gas reserves.
Dr Asim, whose expertise in the sector is of no use in the present crisis, is specifically responsible for its serious oversight. It is of no use for the person in charge of the ministry controlling the entire sector, if there is no petrol or diesel to run vehicles. Rather, this reflects poorly on the ministry, and on the person in charge of it. There has been a basic forgetfulness, of the basic function of any government, of the need to meet people’s needs. True, with its foot-dragging over the Supreme Court’s corruption-related orders, and its persistence in ignoring rampant inflation and plummeting law and order, shows that the government is not concerned by the plight of the ordinary citizen, and thus the provision of fuel to move both people and goods would be a low priority.
The government should not have as its main priority mere survival, and should be wary of going to the electorate, after having deprived it of the fuel on which it runs its transport. Dr Asim can prevent the disaster he predicted, by allaying the reservations of the striking dealers, and ending their strike.