People’s sufferings will weaken PML-N’s sway

ISLAMABAD: Whether the nagging fuel shortage is the outcome of sheer incompetence, casual approach of the petroleum minister and concerned senior officials or a conspiracy, the worst hit area is the same where the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) holds complete sway and from where it has been successively winning maximum National Assembly and Punjab Assembly seats.
This is obviously highly worrying for the PML-N. Its own citadel of power is suffering and its voters are scoffing at it. It is a man-made crisis, not the handiwork of any opposition party.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is unlikely to confine his action to just rolling of a few heads, and will go beyond that. The inefficient lot needs to be awarded due punishment. When he is personally seized with the situation, it is expected to show improvement sooner than later. But at least a week will be required to totally normalise the supply. Already, there is some easing of the pressure.
There are different aspects to the sorry state of affairs. Petroleum Minister Shahid Khakan Abbasi’s argument that he would quit if his culpability is established is absolutely misplaced, uncalled for and unacceptable. What kind of proof does he require to quit? Are the long queues in front of the petrol pumps not more than a plausible proof for him to quit?
Whether or not he was aware of the impending chaos, he, in any case, is squarely responsible for causing immense hardships to the motorists and motorcyclists for no fault of theirs and a huge crisis for his own government. As a noble, honest and honourable person that he is reputed to be, he is required to show grace and bow out and assuage people’s anger to some extent although his exit will hardly have any impact on the fuel supply situation. If he and the relevant top bureaucrats are not responsible, who is guilty by the way? After all, they are supposed to ensure smooth fuel supply and have the prime responsibility.
Abbasi’s second assertion is that fuel scarcity was caused by 25% increase in demand because of the closure of CNG stations due to non-supply of gas. Had he and other officials correctly gauged the situation beforehand, the crisis would have definitely been averted. But unfortunately he kept up his slumberous approach and let the shortage snowball into a monumental crisis, tarnishing the image of the government, which otherwise have no skeletons in its cupboard.
The question of affordability by motorists because of petrol having become cheaper over the past few months doesn’t arise as under all circumstances they were going to use gasoline even if the prices would have been higher or hiked.
It is no time to pass the buck. It is time to accept the responsibility and opt out. Abbasi is in no mood to set any such example. This would have facilitated the prime minister and let an impartial inquiry be carried out into the fiasco. Abbasi would have been hailed had he preferred resignation to coming out with lame excuses. He has miserably failed to receive the open message of two federal ministers Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Khawaja Saad Rafiq, who resented the fuel supply and held the government responsible.
Ironically, when the serious destabilising threat posed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) subsided a month back with Imran Khan having abandoned the plan to agitate on streets, the crisis created by the petroleum minister and his officials has created a grave situation for the government, which was otherwise relaxed due to disappearance of political dangers.