AS different parts of the country are experiencing the worst kind of gas shortage and people were expecting the government will take measures to overcome the crisis, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, while briefing newsmen about proceedings of the cabinet, warned that the country would not have gas in a few years and people should better change their way of living.
He also saw nothing wrong if the price of a medicine jumps from Rs.3 to 7 (more than a hundred per cent increase) and insisted once again that the price situation in Pakistan was much better than other countries of the region.
There is no doubt that the existing oil and gas reserves in the country are depleting but it is not the job of the government to merely pass on the warning and keep its fingers crossed over the brewing crisis.
Keeping the long term prospects apart, the prevailing gas crisis was avoidable but it was triggered mainly because of the inability of the authorities concerned to take timely decisions for import of LNG.
As in the case of depleting reserves, the Government only relied on sensitizing people about impending shortage in winter and did almost nothing to beef up supplies.
As for medium and long term, Pakistan has 19 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves (29th largest in the world) besides possibility of more finds if required investment is made on exploration.
Similarly, it was because of the possibility of shortage that the country planned for import of gas from Iran and Turkmenistan besides a reliable arrangement for import of LNG from Qatar on government-to-government basis but all the three options were not as vigorously pursued as they should have been.
As for indifference of the Government over the more than hundred per cent increase in prices of medicines, this is reflective of its helplessness to address the phenomenon of inflation.
