MULTAN, Sept 16th: Neither National Accountability Bureau (NAB) nor Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)took initiative to investigate the import of spurious,substandard and adulterated High Speed Diesel by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) mafia to earn kickback of billions of rupees.A team of eight officers of PSO icluding Senior General Manager Shehrya Umar (Who had already attempted to flee from Pakistan but immigration staff foiled his bid),General Manager(Retail) Raja Imran,General Manager Babur Siddiqui, General Manager(Security) and Deputy General Manager Atif reached at Multan for early disposal of substandard oil. They have offered the filling station to get this consignment of three week credit with these assurances that there would be no checking of quality control during next ten days. Sources said that taking advantage of caretaker Government, Managing Director of PSO Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq(who was blue eyed of Ex-Prime Minister Khaqan Abbasi and drawing salary of Rs.5 million plus other perks), Deputy Managing Director (Finance) Yaqoub Sattar,General Manager Raja Imran have imported substandard HSD .Unfortunately,the shipment was delayed and it reached in first week of September. They were highly terrified due to changing political atmosphere in the country.They allowed to off load the Diesel without any Laboratory test and certification and supplied to different oil terminals through pipeline. As it reached at Mehmood Kot(Muzaffargarh) terminal,its incharge sent the samples for verification of quality. Lalpir oil texting laboratory declared it unusable for vehicles, spurious, substandard and adulterated. Later he despatched samples to Multan's HDIP Laboratory, Jam Kashif incharge of this lab also gave same report. Then someone reportedly offered Rs.2.5 million to him for issuing a "Positive" report.but he flately refused.HSD is mostly consumed in tractors, trucks, buses, generators, thermal power stations etc of the country. However, complaints pertaining to the sale of adulterated, substandard,spurious diesel are on the rise these days from major parts of the country. Transporters are worried as engines of their vehicles are being damaged due to the open sale of sub-standard diesel while the sale of poor quality diesel is causing heavy losses to businesses and the national exchequer as well.So far, neither the OCAC nor the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and Director General (DG) Oil, Energy Ministry’s Petroleum Division has taken any concrete action/measure to permanently resolve the problem, said sources.Sources in PSO disclosed that shipment of spurious High speed diesel received with the advent of September and it was unloaded without laboratory test and other certification because higher authorities were involved in the purchase of substandard diesel. This shipment was supplied to different oil terminals through pipeline with these instructions that it must be disposed off with two or three days.
Supply of spurious, inferior, substandard High Speed Diesel(HSD) received at Mehmood Kot terminal on September 8 from Keamari. As soon as it reached at local terminal, its incharge sent samples of HSD to Lalpir Lab which declared the product unfit for vehicles because it was substandard and inferior than Iranian oil. Incharge of Mehmood Kot oil Terminal immediately submitted this report to Karachi head office,Then the authorities asked him to send the samples to Multan's HDPI Lab and offered Rs.2.5 million for "Positive" results. but all in vain. This Lab also declared this product spurious and unusable for vehicles.
Subordinate staff is not ready to take any risk of thier job by acting upon the advice of corrupt bosses in rapidly changing political atmosphere.While Three General Managers Zulfikar Jafari of Retail department,S.N.Zaidi of supply and one from logistic department are behind bars for importing adulterated and spurious petroleum products consequently the sale of diesel (HSD) had registered a huge decrease in the last three months (June, July and August) as a reduction in the sale of HSD was around 150,000 tonnes per month which caused heavy losses to the national exchequer. Sources said that despite a reduction in the sale of diesel, concerned authorities remained in deep slumber.
Sources said that Ex-Managing Director Sheikh Imran-ul-Haq , Deputy Managing Director (Finance)Yaquob Sattar, General Manager (Retail)Raja Imran, General Managers Supply and Logistic were involved in this scam.Government had already terminated the service of Managing Director now his remanants are doing the same business.
Sources said that High ups of PSO had assured that there would be no quality checking during next ten days if filling station accept the supply of impugned high speed diesel and they are pressurising the terminal incharges to dispose of this consignment as early as possible so that NAB or FIA could not take any action against them.
The sources also said that the sale of poor quality/substandard diesel said three months was and even at present is on the rise in various parts of the country. They said besides the smuggling of Irani oil, substandard diesel was being imported to the country on mis-declaration. Also, a carbon chemical was being imported for use as diesel after mixing of kerosene oil.It is worth mentioning that HSD imported in July was 188,503 metric tons while 171, 902 MT in August 2018 and in this way total 360,405MT of HSD from July to August 2018.
Despite repeated attempts via phone calls on his personal cell phone number and sending Whatsapp text messages to get official words from Director General Oil Jabbar Memon but he chose not to respond and all attempts remained in vain.
