In the first phase,  action against illegal POL retail  outlets will simultaneously be taken in Punjab, Sindh and KPK which have already been geo mapped by customs besides choking off supply routes of smuggled POL products from Balochistan to the rest of the country

Naveed Miraj

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan government is mulling legalizing oil import from Iran. According to sources, talks in this regard are already under way. The purpose of this move is to check illegal oil import from Iran thus avoiding huge loss incurred due to illegal import.

It may be mentioned here that on the directions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, operation against the sale of smuggled petroleum products in the country has been accelerated as this costs Rs 100 billion to Rs 150 billion loss to national kitty.

Official sources told this correspondent a comprehensive and well thought out action plan has been prepared to nab the oil smuggling racket without any discrimination.

“According to this plan, the crackdown against illegal outlets has been divided into two phase,” the sources said, adding, “In the first phase,  action against illegal POL retail  outlets will simultaneously be taken in Punjab, Sindh and KPK which have already been geo mapped by customs besides choking off supply routes of smuggled POL products from Balochistan to the rest of the country.”

These sources maintained that the operation in Balochistan will be launched in the second phase after the establishment of new legal POL outlets by the oil marketing companies in all the district of the province.

“The option of legalizing import of petroleum products from Iran through land route is also being considered by the relevant quarters to bring an end to smuggling,” the sources said.

The officials of interior ministry, while talking to this correspondent said, “if the sealed pumps do not show valid documentation within seven days of sealing, these will be confiscated by the state under the customs act along with other properties of the owners as it would be deemed that these properties were acquired with smuggling proceeds.”

The official said enforcement teams comprising officers from customs, district management, police, Rangers are jointly conducting the operation on all illegal retail outlets.

According to an official statement earlier issued stated that the drive is showing positive results. Around 1192 petrol pumps sealed and 6.8 million litres of petroleum products including diesel and petrol worth approximately Rs 760 million seized since the launch of operation.

Giving the break up, the official statement said 875 petrol pumps have been seized in Punjab, 172 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 145 in Sindh.

As per the estimates, the highest numbers of 1317 illegal petroleum retail outlets are in Punjab, followed by 343 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 336 in Sindh and 98 in Islamabad Capital Territory and Rawalpindi division.

It merits mentioning that the estimated loss due to the illegal selling of petroleum products to the national  kitty is in the range of Rs 100 billion to Rs 150 billion per annum.

WASHINGTON : Former president Donald Trump considered replacing the acting attorney general with an official willing to pursue unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, and he pushed the Justice Department to ask the Supreme Court to invalidate President Joe Biden’s victory.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the Journal said the efforts in the last weeks of Trump’s presidency failed because of resistance from his Justice appointees who refused to file what they viewed as a legally baseless lawsuit in the Supreme Court.Other senior department officials later threatened to resign if Trump fired then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, several people familiar with the discussions told the Journal.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Saturday.

Senior officials including Rosen, former Attorney General William Barr and former acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall refused to file the Supreme Court case, concluding there was no basis to challenge the election outcome and the federal government had no legal interest in whether Trump or Biden won the presidency, some of these people told the Journal.

Then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy, Patrick Philbin, also opposed Trump’s idea, which was promoted by his outside attorneys, these people said.

After his Supreme Court plan got nowhere, Trump explored replacing Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a Trump ally who had expressed a willingness to use the department’s power to help Trump continue his unsuccessful legal battles contesting the election results, the people told the Journal.

Trump backed off that plan after the threats from senior Justice Department leadership to resign if Rosen were removed, people familiar with the discussions said.

Democrats reacted with fury on Saturday to the New York Times’ report, with Senator Richard Durbin, incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, saying he would investigate efforts to use the Justice Department to further Trump’s efforts to overthrow the election results. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling on the department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, to investigate “this attempted sedition.”

Trump’s relentless and baseless claims of election fraud – and his refusal to acknowledge Biden’s victory – culminated on Jan. 6 when Trump urged a rally of his supporters to march to the Capitol to protest the certification of the results. The resulting rampage led to five deaths, including a Capitol police officer.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time a week later for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol, and a Senate trial on the charge will begin the week of Feb. 8. Biden took office on Wednesday.