Managing a country like Pakistan requires nerves of steel and a tremendous amount of patience because the leadership has to deal with inefficient, mostly corrupt or corruptible individuals and organisations that lack the vision to see beyond their personal gains and interests. The third tenure of Nawaz Sharif is like the third level of a video game where hurdles, as well as the speed of the game increases and the player has to be more and more careful every step of the way. Nawaz Sharif cannot afford administrative failures because all such negativities are going to have a direct impact on his future politics, especially in the wake of the PTI’s anti-government drive. However, it appears that at different levels of management, there are some elements that do not, or do not want to, share his vision. At times, they, in their personal capacity, make or influence a decision that can prove to have seriously negative consequences and repercussions. The Model Town incident was one example of this negativity and the current petrol crisis is the latest one. Shortage of fuel actually double-fuelled the media to wage a propaganda war against the government and the repeated misrepresentation and distortion of facts made the already disturbed and emotionally charged people of Pakistan believe that they had actually been victimised by the government. Contrary to this propaganda, the reality lies somewhere else. As a student of business it was easy for me to understand but I am sure even a layman can appreciate this logic: a sharp decline in the price of petrol and immediate transference of relief to the public made oil companies think that if they were going to comply with the rule, imposed by the government, of maintaining 20 days’ supply, in the wake of sharply declining petrol prices they feared that they would end up selling fuel at a price less than its cost price, termed as inventory loss. Therefore, the oil companies decided to completely exhaust their supplies and then buy and sell at a new rate. These petrol-hungry crocodiles — I have named them petro-crocs — did not consider the resulting calamity-like situation for the people of Pakistan and emptied their reserves. It is a common observation that when petrol prices inflate, which has been routine in the past, these companies make massive profits, which is why their claim of inventory loss is not justified by any means. The role of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) becomes questionable for two reasons: first of all, in accordance with the rules of economics, decline in petroleum prices was bound to increase its demand. especially when it was being observed and reported that, because of the cheap price of petrol, CNG users would also switch to petrol. Therefore, it was OGRA’s responsibility to anticipate the inflated demand and make necessary arrangements. Secondly, this organisation was also responsible for monitoring and ensuring that oil companies fulfil legal operating requirements. OGRA’s inefficiency coupled with the agendas of petro-crocs, who are involved in hoarding and black marketing of petrol, has brought the country, for the first time in history, to an embarrassingly low level of petrol supplies. It will not be out of line to mention here that, coincidently, during this time, the Pak-Arab Refinery Corporation (PARCO) was not operative because of technical issues that further aggravated the petrol shortage. The government, contrary to expectations, has responded to the petrol crisis in the country by making a three-pronged strategy, including administrative action against the responsible officials, immediate provision of CNG as an alternate fuel and making necessary and effective arrangements at the national level to bridge the demand and supply gap of petrol. All three dimensions of this strategy have been successfully dealt with by the government. The prime minister immediately suspended the concerned officials and has ordered an inquiry against them. CNG is being supplied throughout Punjab, decreasing the demand for petrol, resulting in shorter queues at petrol stations. The prime minister has also conducted a series of high-level meetings to resolve this crisis with minimum damaging impact on the public. To monitor the progress of this issue the prime minister has even cancelled his pre-scheduled visit to Switzerland, which shows his concern and seriousness. During the current crisis, the illegal sale of petrol emerged. It has been reported that people have even purchased petrol at the super-inflated price of Rs 400 per litre. Much of this illegal sale is attributed to unnecessary hype and hysteria, which led to panic buying, created by the media just to quench its thirst for sensationalism. To check this exploitation, the government of Punjab, on the instructions of the prime minister, has taken some very important decisions, including the permanent deployment of police officials at petrol pumps, up to Rs 200,000 fine on illegal sale of petrol and imposition of Section 144. Because of these wise strategic moves, not only has the illegal sale of petrol been significantly reduced, the supply of petrol has increased as well. Criticism of the government is a highly marketable product, which is why the media tries to exploit such opportunities to address its financial concerns. However, during the heat of their anti-government propaganda, a section of the Pakistani media, responsible for distorting the focus of the people and creating a public divide, has overlooked a very important fact: the series of painful and tragic events, as a consequence of terrorism, have, after a long time, united the political parties. This political harmony is needed to defeat terrorism in the country. Therefore, those individuals who are exploiting this opportunity for profiteering are not doing any service to the nation but, in effect, are fulfilling the terrorists’ agenda of cultivating disharmony and unrest across the country. As a nation, we should also appreciate the fact that the vigilance of our armed forces has successfully kept the terrorists away from their nefarious plans during the unprecedented petrol crisis. The author is a director PID