The government took notice of the country’s diesel scarcity on Monday and determined to take strong measures against those responsible for the manufactured shortfall. According to government sources, Secretary Petroleum Ali Raza Bhutta chaired a high-level virtual conference during which it was reported that the country possessed the required reserves of petroleum products. The meeting was also informed that the country had the required 21-day stock of diesel and 31-day stock of petrol, and that an artificial shortage of diesel had been created due to speculations of a Rs52 per litre price increase. The committee decided to take harsh measures against diesel hoarders, authorising all four provinces’ chief secretaries to conduct raids and revoke the licences of merchants implicated in the hoarding of diesel. The council also urged the relevant authorities to maintain a steady supply of diesel and tighten the oversight of authorised dealers’ diesel inventories. The conference was attended by officials from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and Pakistan State Oil (PSO), as well as representatives from oil marketing businesses. According to reliable sources, there are around 10,000 authorised oil company dealers in the country. There is no restriction to the number of unlicensed and unapproved dealers, and the government has no information about them. Due to the harvesting of wheat, these illegal traders have stored significant volumes of diesel, whose demand has skyrocketed, with daily consumption rising from 23,000 tonnes to 33,000 tonnes. The supply of diesel has been harmed as a result of rising demand, and political opposition is also seen to be a factor in the resulting artificial scarcity.