Oil circus

Typical PML-N incompetence

Once again the prime minister misplayed the optics as well as the problem. Back from his Saudi trip, he held an emergency meeting at the airport – after his ministers went mute as the crisis worsened – suspended four officials, ordered an inquiry and cancelled all Monday engagements. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was spared any blowback, of course, and there’s still no official confirmation of the cause of the problem. Just recently the Marvi Memons of the party were crying out loud about how the government reduced the people’s problems by reducing fuel prices – which was again unimpressive politics because the reasons were exogenous. Yet now Pakistan is the only country that faces acute fuel shortage at a time of an international oil glut.

Abbasi did offer his two pence, however belatedly, and blamed increased demand as a result of the reduced prices, which, again, is far from the truth. The petroleum secretary is more on cue, since the problem concerns the circular debt, and how repeated breakdowns in the money chain have left PSO insolvent. But that opens another dark chapter in the government’s short, but controversial, third stint. There’s still no follow-up on the Rs500 billion that went to money heaven and the debt rose much faster than last time. Perhaps Mian Sb should initiate an inquiry on the funds that disappeared too – while the problem remained, of course – and identify those in the government machinery who might have had a part to play.

The people, meanwhile, have lost faith in the government. First it was electricity, then gas, and now it cannot provide the commodity that is in abundant supply throughout the world. Already, fuel shortage has started affecting power generation, so the electricity problem is going to get worse as well. The prime minister seems to have developed a liking for holding meetings and initiating inquiries, but he doesn’t seem too focused on delivering results. He claims to have defended democracy, yet his party still does not realise that an important tenet of democratic politics is delivering on your campaign promises.