THE report published in a national daily pointing out the failure of the Oil and Gas Development Company to meet its yearly target for oil and gas extraction; and their timely supply to the energy sector is too disturbing for words. The decline in the national oil and gas production has inevitably exacerbated the prevailing energy crisis. This was the time when the OGDCL ought to have augmented the power supply. What is worse, there are reports that the drilling targets for the next year would not be met. Now the reason is that professionally inexperienced persons, mostly political appointees, are running the OGDCL, even at its top level. This is extremely shocking. This sort of mediocrity along with corruption, so to speak, has been the bane of the system. Lets face it The power crisis has turned out to be the yardstick of the ruling dispensation's style of governance. No wonder the government has been faring so poorly in virtually every field; be it law and order, poverty, corruption or foreign policy for that matter. One day we hear about bureaucracy in league with the political bosses shelving an important hydroelectric power project just for not getting their share of the pie; and then on other days, Prime Minister Gilani is found delaying a vital gas extraction project. Meanwhile, the energy crisis has assumed elephantine proportions. The economy has been taking serious blows, as the industrial and agricultural sector appear totally helpless without these essential inputs. Now, the government has dropped a bombshell by announcing yet another hike in electricity and gas tariffs. The rulers must put their act together and come up with a sustainable energy policy. As the example of OGDCL and the Federal Minister for Power and Energy Raja Pervaiz making false promises shows, the government basically lacks a professional approach that has aggravated the situation. To straighten things out in the energy sector, the government must induct the right type of experts without further delay.