Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin admitted to the present gas crisis in the country on Samaa News. However, a day later, Tarin denied his own words and issued a clarification.
After the show was aired and various news media outlets covered the story, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar took to Twitter and blamed Geo for manipulating Tarin’s words.
Hammad tweeted, “What Tarin actually said: -intl prices high due to global shortage. -Noone can predict intl price. – some time ago (July) they had refused a tender (July) but that was for a limited time & wouldn’t have changed things now.”
“Geo: Gas crises due to not purchasing LNG on time, Fin Min,” added Hammad.
Shaukat Tarin, after admitting to the gas crisis, took to Twitter and shared his clarification.
“News item published in Daily The News titled ‘Govt couldn’t purchase gas Cargoes in time, admits Tarin’ is completely misleading & out of the context,” read the statement.
“When anchor (Nadeem Malik) asked about the gas shortfall situation in the country, he stated the reasons including the ongoing global LNG shortages which have created fiasco, and it was not in control of anybody.”
“Government has been buying the gas as required, despite higher international prices. However, he has mentioned there was one tender scrapped in July, but this has nothing to do with winter gas. The Adviser Finance has not mentioned at any point that winter gas shortfalls are due to non-procurement of LNG on time.”
On November 23, Shaukat Tarin appeared on Samaa News’ programme, ‘Nadeem Malik Live’, and said the very words being denied now.
“We [government] should have bought the gas cargoes on time as the purchasing time for it was over,” said Tarin.
Tarin further said nobody knew about the international prices, which he stated were quite high, and that the government should have bought some cargoes earlier.
