THE petroleum minister’s explanation in the National Assembly that the recent closure of the Iran border has disrupted liquefied petroleum gas supplies and driven up prices identifies a major cause of the current crisis. The subsequent partial border reopening has failed to ease the shortage.

While the closure may have triggered the present shortages and price hike, the problem recurs every winter. Pakistan produces only about a quarter of the LPG it needs. The rest is imported, mainly from Iran. The disruption of cross-border trade has therefore exposed the vulnerability of a market that depends heavily on external supplies. The Iran war has also complicated efforts to bring in more by sea. The minister says efforts are being made to increase seaborne supplies, but consumers have yet to see relief.

The state must explain what additional volumes have been secured, and when they will arrive. Further, why were no contingency measures taken before the Iran border closure, especially when the authorities knew that the onset of winter would push up demand? The decision-makers owe an explanation to people suffering due to sudden shortages and price shock.

That said, the current LPG supply disruption is only part of the wider story. LPG prices have historically surged as winter approaches, even without a major supply shock. This recurring pattern suggests that the crisis is not simply the result of border closure.

Inadequate advance planning, weak market oversight and the failure to build reliable supply arrangements leave consumers exposed whenever demand rises or imports are interrupted. The consequences are particularly harsh for households without access to piped natural gas. Millions of families in northern Pakistan, remote and hilly areas, and parts of Punjab depend on LPG for cooking and, during colder months, heating.

Low gas pressure and restricted supplies in connected areas also push more consumers towards cylinders, adding to demand. With the official price around Rs280 per kg and reported market rates reaching Rs500-800, an essential fuel has become unaffordable for many. Blaming the Iran border closure is but an attempt to cover up the ministry’s failure to do its basic duty: ensure adequate supplies ahead of the closure and enforce the official fuel price.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2026

Don’t forget the governor’s history of writing postdated checks on closed accounts.

A inteligência artificial redefine a relação entre marcas e consumidores e o crescimento das empresas depende tanto da capacidade de interpretar o comportamento humano como da visão estratégica para transformar ideias em resultados. De compreender a mente de uma nova geração de consumidores a decifrar os métodos que impulsionam empresas como a Tesla e a SpaceX, sem esquecer os exemplos de excelência que fizeram história no marketing, estes três livros propõem diferentes caminhos para pensar marcas, negócios e liderança.

A Ticket apresenta uma nova imagem, alinhando o seu 'restyling' visual com a modernização da gestão de benefícios corporativos.

PARLIAMENT has recently been debating the future of Pakistani democracy, but those debates will be for naught unless our leaders also develop the capacity to acknowledge each other’s positions.

The past two days have seen the government and opposition benches trading blame for democracy’s present, rather sorry state.

On Wednesday, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman accused the government of misusing the Constitution and resorting to unconstitutional measures. He also said his party was “prepared to die” resisting the government if the latter continued pursuing a policy of confrontation and violence, and proposed a new Charter of Democracy as the way out.

Regretting that his efforts to mediate between the government and the PTI had failed because the government had changed course and imposed an emergency and governor’s rule in KP, the maulana said the political leadership had grown too intolerant for parliament to do its job.

He was not wrong, though the fault is hardly the government’s alone.

The maulana’s rebuke drew two kinds of response. Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif resorted to personal attacks, insinuating that the JUI-F chief was merely sore at being denied a share of power in KP.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, on the other hand, was more circumspect. Though he, too, laid much of the blame for parliament’s dysfunction on the opposition, he nonetheless urged it to exercise its powers and return to parliamentary committees.

“Those who want this House to remain dysfunctional and do not want the people of Pakistan to benefit from it have succeeded,” he told the opposition benches. “You have played a part in helping these people achieve their objective.” It was a surprisingly candid admission that the House’s dysfunction serves interests other than the people’s, even if the PPP chief left out his own party’s role in getting us here.

They may have yet to come to terms with it, but both ruling and opposition parties have lost credibility and political ground due to their ongoing vendetta. The maulana’s call for a new Charter of Democracy, though welcome, looks difficult to realise when the two sides cannot even agree to sit together in parliamentary committees.

The imposition of emergency and governor’s rule in KP was a gross misstep by the federal government, and it has spoiled the chances of a negotiated settlement. But the opposition, too, has gained little from confrontation.

Unless both sides start to show some flexibility on key matters, make compromises and enter negotiations without preconditions, they risk further deepening this crisis of their own making.

If enough lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are willing to admit that matters have gone too far, there may yet be hope for parliament, and for Pakistani democracy. The question is, are they ready to do so?

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2026

California’s “sanctuary” policies are smug, arrogant — and petulant.

Imagine running for office on a promise to raise taxes, in an election when the top issue for voters is "affordability."

Hong Kong is still healing from the trauma of the Wang Fuk Court fire that claimed 168 lives nearly a year ago. The difficult process has been taken a step further with the release of the final report of an independent committee of inquiry led by a High Court judge, and the response of the government, revealed on Thursday by the city’s leader and his administration. The concept of accountability has hung heavily over proceedings. It is only natural after such a catastrophe for people to expect...

Ante la tozudez de la realidad, habrá que colegir que la gestión gubernamental de los intereses públicos solo ha destacado, si es que se puede utilizar ese término, en la exacción fiscal de empresas y trabajadores y en unas políticas clientelares, que la propaganda oficial denomina «sociales», que, como ejemplifica el caso del Ingreso Mínimo Vital (IMV), es uno de los factores de la cronificación de la pobreza que se sufre en amplias capas de la población. De hecho, ante las tragedias ferroviarias de Adamuz y de Urda, sucedidas en menos de diez meses y en la misma línea de Alta Velocidad, la que va de Madrid a Sevilla, que es la más antigua de la red, podría decirse que son el compendio de una gestión política negligente y no exenta de soberbia, pecado capital del sanchismo que condiciona cualquier asunción de la responsabilidad y, por lo tanto, el reconocimiento del yerro y la voluntad de corrección. En el tiempo transcurrido entre las dos catástrofes de Adamuz y Urda, la acción del Gobierno, cuyo máximo representante en el ámbito concernido es el todavía ministro de Transportes Óscar Puente, se ha caracterizado por el ocultamiento de las causas, la insistencia en mantener operativa la red del AVE por encima de las limitaciones que aconsejaba el estado de la vía afectada y de unos sistemas de seguridad en el final de su vida útil, la total displicencia con que se despachaban los avisos y advertencias de los mejores profesionales del ferrocarril y, finalmente, el despliegue masivo de la propaganda para disimular lo que experimentaban en el día a día los usuarios, como si el mantenimiento de la minería electoral fuera el único denominador común del Ejecutivo sanchista. Pero si esta descripción de la acción gubernamental corresponde a los últimos nueve meses, es obligado señalar que no se ha llegado a este punto de deterioro de la red ferroviaria en un tiempo corto, sino que ha sido el resultado de ocho años de infrafinanciación del servicio, reducción presupuestaria de los trabajos de mantenimiento y revisión, contratos en baja temeraria de unos sistemas de seguridad modernos para la línea Madrid-Sevilla que tenían que haber entrado en servicio a primeros de este año, pero que siguen en proceso de instalación, y, sobre todo, la implementación de una política laboral en la que se ha primado la vinculación a las distintas familias socialistas de los altos dirigentes de Adif y Renfe por encima de la aptitud profesional para unos cargos con mucha exigencia técnica. Y todo ello, por cierto, cuando ningún otro gobierno de la reciente historia de la democracia española había disfrutado de unos ingresos fiscales de récord, los más altos del periodo, y de las enormes aportaciones de los fondos de recuperación de la Unión Europea. El déficit de inversión en las infraestructuras es, por supuesto, una realidad sangrante frente a la pesada carga impositiva impuesta a los ciudadanos, que machaca a las clases medias y trabajadoras, y el crecimiento imparable de la deuda pública que está experimentando España. Nos hallamos ante el inevitable acto final de un gobierno negligente, que no tiene más asideros que la propaganda, pero que pretende seguir dando lecciones.

© EFE

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El accidente ferroviario de Urda reviste tanta gravedad que el Ministerio de Transportes, del que dependen Renfe y Adif, se está esforzando por dar respuesta con suma celeridad a todas las dudas de los ciudadanos. La intención puede ser loable, pero a medida que se conocen los datos, las incógnitas y la perplejidad aumentan. Lejos de serenar los ánimos y tranquilizar a la población, las primeras informaciones agravan la intranquilidad. Nada devolverá la vida a las víctimas mortales. No hay vuelta de hoja ni enmienda. Su memoria exige, sin embargo, una investigación objetiva y rigurosa. En cuanto a los ciudadanos –conscientes de que muchos de ellos o sus familiares podían haber viajado en los dos convoyes siniestrados–, el deber del Gobierno va más allá de dar respuestas: se necesitan también soluciones. Hechos y no solo palabras.

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