They say money can buy you everything except love. This is not true. You can’t buy petrol even if you have money, at least not in Lahore.
It’s not just the shortage of petrol which is afflicting us; we have been suffering from the insufficiency of CNG as well. People have access to CNG only 5 days in a week. Instead of solving the problem of this already existing deficiency, they have brought on a new problem of scarcity for the public. Almost ten days have passed since this petrol shortage has begun, yet no concrete steps have been taken to control it and there are no signs of the crisis relenting. Long queues of commuters were seen at some filling stations situated on Davis Road, Empress Road, Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Johar Town, Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and Barkat Market where limited supply of fuel to citizens was available. Keeping in view the gap between demand and supply, these petrol pumps were providing only Rs 100-200 of fuel to motorcyclists and up to Rs 500 of fuel to cars.
In this situation, no one is taking responsibility for the shortage. This situation is an example of mismanagement and the government needs to answer for its mistake. Our Federal Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain hasn’t given any clear statement about this petrol shortage and he should at least provide answers if not solutions.
The government should solve the issue of payments to the refineries so that this huge problem can be solved.
WASIF SOHAIL
Lahore
