Petrol crisis: Nadeem Babar fails to remove reservations of cabinet members: sources

ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Petroleum, Nadeem Babar, has failed to remove reservations of PM Imran Khan and federal cabinet members over the petrol crisis, citing sources, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The federal cabinet members have rejected the stance of Nadeem Babar when he claimed that the petrol pump owners have illegally stored the petrol and blamed that around 10,000 small-scale agencies were involved in creating the artificial crisis.

The cabinet members criticised the special assistant, saying that he made new claims after failing to end petrol crisis within three days. They also said that small segments could not create an artificial petrol crisis on such a large scale in the country, sources added.

Babar gave the stance during a debate started in the federal cabinet meeting today, said sources, adding that Babar Awan raised questions over the lack of progress in eliminating the petrol crisis by the petroleum ministry during the next three days.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the hoarding issue was not new in the country and the petroleum ministry should claim the responsibility of its failures. Shibli Faraz urged the ministry to immediately take strict action against the responsible people.

Read: Read: PM Imran gives green signal to resume international flight operations

Besides discussing the petrol crisis, the cabinet members have also discussed the matters related to the functionalisation of Corona Relief Tiger Force (CRTF) in Multan, National Electric Vehicle policy, decisions of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) and approval of its five-point agenda.

Qureshi gave a briefing to the federal cabinet regarding the CRTF activities in Multan. He said that the force was made functional in 30 union councils of his constituency. The premier directed the cabinet members to functionalise the tiger force across the country to assist the local administration to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, the federal cabinet gave formal approval to the National Electric Vehicle policy which focused to convert motorcycles, rickshaws, buses and trucks from different fuel mediums to electricity-powered batteries. The premier was told that 500,000 vehicles will be converted into electric-powered batteries during the first phase.

PM Imran Khan summoned a report from Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) over medicines being used for coronavirus patients. He directed the issuance of licences for locally manufacturing medicines besides reducing the prices of the drug to treat the patients infected with the coronavirus.