Major gasoline shortage in Pakistan is causing problems for drivers

(Image credit: iStock)

published 20 January 2015

A gasoline shortage in Pakistan has left stations dry and motorists angry at Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

On Tuesday, it appeared that 75 percent of gas stations in the country's second-largest city, Lahore, were closed, The Washington Post reports. That's actually an improvement from the weekend, when an estimated 95 percent of stations were empty and ambulance services had to be partially suspended. Sharif has returned to Pakistan from a visit to Saudi Arabia, and said he is overseeing the effort to get more gasoline.

Officials say it's the country's worst fuel shortage in memory. Drivers blame the shortage on Sharif and the government, which underestimated the amount of gas needed to keep Pakistan going. "The army should impose martial law, and then we will get everything," motorist Mohammad Idrees told the Post. "Public leaders have failed." Economists believe it could take a month for the situation to stabilize.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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