Daily Times

Punjab’s anti-corruption establishment has had reason to work overtime again, this time because of the issue of “illegal” petrol pumps that have cropped up all over the province. It turns out that hundreds of pumps, of which a fair number is owned by “influential people,” have been functioning up and down the province and nobody, especially the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), had any clue about it. And since these pumps are illegal, they are outside the government’s sales tax net, which will surely cause much hue and cry in official circles now that the cat is out of the bag. The establishment has promised swift and complete action in accordance with the law, which means the days when people with contacts could sell fuel smuggled from Iran and eat off the fat of the land as they wished might well be coming to an end.

Yet now that this matter is being investigated nobody should be surprised to see at least a number of government officials involved in the scam as well. The official procedure to obtain a construction permit for a petrol pump isn’t all that complicated. All one needs is a few dozen No Objection Certificates (NOCs) before the application goes to the Deputy Commissioner’s office for the green light. Interestingly, though, this is the point when a rather significant arm of the government, the explosives department, comes into the action. This department is responsible for granting the so called K-form, which guarantees that the construction site will not violate official procedure and shall be placed far away from schools, hospitals and other sensitive buildings.

How could the owners of these “illegal” pumps clear the official procedure and still manage to run their illegitimate enterprises without some sort of help on the inside? And, for the sake of argument, even if they were able to bypass the system somehow, what does the law book say about such matters? Surely the official record will show just who scrutinised and cleared these pumps for business. The anti-corruption establishment looked into 495 suspect pumps, of which 202 have so far been investigated and 154 have been sealed. But how long will the investigation that will determine who on the side of the government facilitated such foul play take to come out in the open? This government has made it something of a mission to crackdown against corruption of all sorts, especially in government offices. And it is at moments like these that they can really show their commitment to their own cause. *