From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz accused the government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of “incompetence” on Wednesday, two days after an inquiry into the recent petroleum crisis fixed the blame on the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for the shortage of the commodity.
A 15-member commission, constituted on the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, hurled scathing accusations at the entire oil supply chain, from policymakers to regulators and market players down to retail outlets, found a wide range of operations in the sector were “against law and rules, operating in a vacuum and without any check and balance”.
Separately, the findings estimated the worth of oil smuggled from Iran at Rs250 billion. In its conclusion, the commission found itself “compelled to recommend” the dissolution of the oil regulator in addition to a performance audit of all the regulatory bodies including the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). Commenting on the findings of the report, Maryam claimed it confirms “what we already knew”.
“The crises was a direct result of the Selected’s incompetence, poor decision making and above all corrupt practices. This is exactly why he needs to go and is on his way out Insha’Allah,” she tweeted. “As if we had [a] shortage of scams sugar, wheat, LNG, medicines, now the oil scam. All multi-billion dollars scams reflecting incompetence, poor decision making and looting & plundering the masses to benefit SELECTED & his cronies,” she declared in a subsequent tweet.
The report said the petroleum division’s decision to impose a ban on petrol import in March was wrong in the first place from a strategic and policy perspective, but oil marketing companies (OMCs) violated it.
It said that when the ban was imposed, petrol prices were at the lowest ebb in the international market and Pakistan and its consumers were denied its benefit. The petroleum division and director general (oil) failed to ensure the lifting of stocks by the OMCs from February to April 2020. The OMCs simply refused to lift quotas from local refineries.
The commission put OGRA on top of the blaming list, saying “much of the mess that abounds in the oil industry pertains to OGRA and the related laws/rules”.
It also blamed OGRA for imposing “ritual fines” on the OMCs for drying out their retail outlets during June this year, issuance of unlawful provisional marketing licences to the OMCs, no punitive action on illegal joint ventures or hospitalities among the OMCs and no revocation or suspension of licence of even a single delinquent OMC.
