The persisting fuel shortage, which is affecting the country''s economy at large, will continue for the next 3 to 4 days as the consignment of imported gasoline may be further to reach the port, industry sources said on Thursday. As a result, the motorists are facing hardships to get their vehicles refuelled during an announced strike, which is still being around for last 48 hours.
The filling stations in the provincial capital remained almost closed due to the non-availability of fuel at their stocks that had run out from Tuesday evening. The fuel shortage has also disturbed power generation, which led prolonged load shedding and consequently water scarcity in the city. Minor clashes were also witnessed at several petrol pumps where people castigated owners of the filling stations for creating an artificial shortage just to make maximum profit.
Sources in the petroleum industry said the Secretary Petroleum Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry in a meeting directed Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to ensure the supply of all available stock in the market on emergent basis. They said the supply of petrol is going to be restored within 3 to 4 days as the National Refinery Limited (NRL) and the PARCO have been directed to maximise its production capacity and ensure uninterrupted supply of gasoline to the retailers promptly.
Answering a question, the sources said that the authorities have also decided to take punitive measures against those petrol owners who are involved in creating artificial fuel shortage just to earn more and more. They further said the maintenance work in Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) would hopefully be completed within a month while the consignment of imported gasoline would also take more days to reach the port. When this scribe approached officials in PSO to know the date of arrival of imported gasoline, they were not available on phone.
Meanwhile, chairman FPCCI standing committee on petroleum Malik Khuda Bux said the government had not evolved any plan to meet the fuel shortage albeit two of five oil refineries had informed to shut operations for maintenance, which led to create fuel scarcity in the country.
He said the federal authorities had discussed the issue with the representatives of oil refineries, oil marketing companies and other stakeholders but no outcome has practically been witnessed on ground to overcome the fuel crisis. However, the chairman Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) Sami Khan said the OMCs did not restore the supply of petrol, despite having directives of secretary petroleum to do so with immediate effect.
He said that in Punjab, the fuel shortage has been persisting for last 30 days and now the same is being faced by the Karachiites but the authorities have so far appeared toothless to come up with any comprehensive strategy to cope the issue. He expected that the present fuel shortage would remain continued in the metropolis for next three days.
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