LETTER: Point fingers all you want, it's the government ministries' job to ensure proper short-term and long-term policies are put into place so that fuel shortages like the current ones do not happen. Make no mistake, oil company supply networks were adequately supplying petroleum products to their retail outlets as per demand. As soon clocks struck 12:00 midnight on June 1st, people obviously started filling up their tanks. Stocks that lasted weeks at a fuel station, sold out in a matter of hours. Yes, stocks ran out, but would have been timely replenished under normal circumstances had the media not sensationalized the alleged shortage, panic-buying wouldn't have ensued. What's more, as various pumps started drying up, it increased pressure ten-fold on those oil company outlets that had stocks available; starting a domino effect of dried out fuel stations. Some stayed closed while other retail outlets kept up with the exponential demand and reported extraordinary sales figures - all because authorities didn't have the foresight to see the repercussions of their decisions.

Karachi Neha Khan