I have heard Press conference of Ishaq Dar. It is amazing how politicians can lie without flinching even a little.
I checked this morning, only Rs 17-billion have so far been released; peanuts compared to about Rs 190-billion owed by Gov’t owned companies. I can say with conviction that since end Nov 2014 Ministry of Petroleum was aware of the problem. Secretary of Finance as well Secretary of Petroleum had been approached time & again by the MD of PSO but nothing was done. Agreement with IMF restricts printing of notes & gov’t borrowing. Tax revenues from petroleum products have also declined by 50%. This in effect means rationing of funds. It is Nawaz Sharif himself who is the ultimate authority as to how the funds are to be allocated and the funds have been preferentially given to Metro project which is close to Nawaz Sharif’s heart.
It is true that independent marketing companies can import without going thru PSO. However independents have only just over half the market share. As soon as tightness at the PSO pumps was perceived; public switched to the independents. 50% shortage is huge and when coupled with panic buying; independent’s stocks were soon exhausted.
There was no conspiracy against the NS gov’t as claimed by Ishaq Dar. Biggest conspirators against PML-N gov’t are Sharif brothers who insist on total control and appointing spineless Ministers. Why did Khaqan Abbasi not raise the question in the Cabinet meeting? May be he did but was ignored and was too scared to confront Nawaz Sharif for the fear of losing his job?
Irony is that people who were only partially responsible for this mess have been made the scape goat. Typical of the third world country.
Gov’t is there to serve the public. In Pakistan, personality cult is so strong that democracy is just a farce and no one can challenge the authority of the leader. I am a Democrat, but democracy without good governance is useless. We must not the forget that Hitler was also a democratically elected leader.