Petrol crisis: PM suspends four high-ranking officials

According to details, Prime Minister while taking notice of the severe petrol crisis in Punjab suspended Secretary Petroleum Abid Saeed, MD of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) Amjad Janjua, Additional Secretary Naeem Malik and DG Oil Muhammad Azam.

Here the question rises whether these officials were responsible for the shortage of petrol, despite they had repeatedly informed about worsening financial situation of the PSO during meetings of the relative standing committee, yet no one heeded on their reports.

Upon government’s pressure, uninterrupted oil supply to the energy sector and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was continued. As a result, PSO’s dues reached up to Rs 200 billion on the power sector, while on PIA it amounted up to Rs 15 billion.

The Ministry of Water and Power regardless of all its claims could not improve recovery of bills, while PIA kept handing cheques to PSO which could not be cashed to the date.

The issue is not new, each time the Ministry of Finance has been delaying the matter by issuing Rs 10-12 billion to the PSO.

However, this time Finance Ministry could not gauge the seriousness of the matter and when the crisis reached at its peak then the Punjab CM did a favor by resuming CNG supply in Lahore alone and the PM got away by suspending four senior officials.