More from Pakistan: Iqbal Khan: I talked to my nephew, they allowed him to buy only Rs.200 worth of petrol yesterday , I think thats about $2 only. People are walking more and using bicycle, kind of good I think. Fouad Khan: hey Naomi Wolf Petrol is still available but people have to stand in line for hours to get it. There are people selling it in black for 4 to 5 times the official price. The crises has been worsened by an on-going electricity and gas shortage - there are on average 6 to 8 hours of electricity and gas load-shedding for domestic users. Last year the finance ministry literally handed away 500 billion rupees to independent power producers to address the circular debt issue responsible for electric shortages. That didnt seem to help the electricity shortage crisis at all and the situation worsened. When the auditor general questioned the 500 billion rupee disbursement, he was sacked for some technicality, and the finance minister (a known money launderer for the ruling Sharif family) got a bill approved that authorized the finance ministry to make payments without pre-audit. The current deficit in payments responsible for the petrol shortage stands at about rs. 200 billion and the going theory is that the shortage has been created to make another unaccountable payment or disbursement to private entities in a crisis environment (so that nobody questions). The other interesting thing is that the current petroleum minister (Shahid Khaqan Abbasi) as CEO of the national carrier PIA oversaw the transformation of the airline from one of the best in the region to a debt-addled liability in Sharif familys last term as rulers. It is eerie how exactly the same is happening to once profitable Pakistan State Oil company is his tenure as petroleum minister now. This blog (although horribly written) recounts some of the history. https://hmkyz.wordpress/.../01/20/who-burned-the-petrol/.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 11:27:33 +0000