PESHAWAR: The Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, woke up to address the fuel shortage in the province two days after the problem was over.

The home department issued a statement on Saturday with the directives to district and police administration to check what it called artificial shortage of petrol, little realising that when the shortage occurred it was nowhere to be seen and just when commuters were heaving a sigh of relief it sprung into action.

Peshawar was also affected by petrol crisis and fuel stations for days either had to close down or had to ration petrol due to its nationwide shortage.

But while the media and the federal government remained focused on fuel shortage in Lahore and Islamabad, not a single political leader or the provincial or district administration took note of it.

True, the fuel shortage was not as acute in Peshawar and other cities of KP as it was in Punjab, due to availability of CNG, thanks to an earlier decision of the Peshawar High Court but while vehicle owners roamed around from one station to the other to get petrol, the government and the administration was found missing.

Lo and behold, on Saturday, the home department finally woke up to the issue, when the situation with regard to petrol availability has largely improved with the directives to the district and police administration to keep an eye on profiteers.

The little that the district and police administration now could do is to check rationing of petrol at some petrol pump stations.

The home department said in its statement that it had come to its notice that profiteers had created problems of artificial shortage of petrol and the retailers had stopped the selling of petrol and diesel to consumers on the pretext that petrol was not available with them and they had no store at the outlets. As a result, commuters and public suffer badly that could cause serious law and order situation, it added.

The department instructed all divisional commissioners and the district administrations to check petrol pumps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to ensure availability of petrol and diesel to consumers round the clock on official rates.

Published in Dawn January 25th , 2015

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