The perpetual energy crisis was always there. But with sheer ineptness and commitment to cronyism and tireless efforts at mismanaging priorities and obliging special interest groups, the government of Pakistan has now handed the citizens of Pakistan a petrol crisis as well.

Global oil prices have been in free fall for the last eight weeks. The prices are falling because there is too much supply of oil in the market but not enough buyers. So at a time of excess oil supply and plummeting prices, our government has managed to secure for the people of Pakistan an oil shortage.

Just let that sink in.

I doubt it will though because it makes absolutely no sense, except maybe the special kind of sense which the Ministry of Information possesses.

The crisis is moronic, to say the least, and completely down to the inability of this government to get the simplest things right. What's worse is the magnitude of indifference with which it has been and is being handled.

In any other country, heads should have rolled long ago, people would have been fired or suspended from their jobs for being stupid enough to not see this coming or worse (but true) to have seen it coming but failing to do anything about it.

It isn't hyperbolic to say that the Minister of Petroleum should have been sacked by now. It would have made no difference to the oil supply in the country but it would have at least shown to the people that the government was capable of some kind of remorse.

But that is their problem, isn't it – they truly do not have any remorse for anything they do. It is as if they are perpetually sticking it to the public of Pakistan.

Well, the people deserve better. What the government doesn't understand is that sooner rather than later, people will start calling for change by hook or by crook. The masses are getting sick and tired of how their votes keep coming back to haunt them.

So, in very real terms, the democratic future of this country is at stake here; and it is the politicians this time who are putting it there.

I realise that cronyism is how the system is designed to work. I hate that fact, but I acknowledge it. Unlike some fellow analysts/writers, I do not live in 'la la land' where everything must either be by the book and meritorious or not be at all. I understand that the business of running countries like ours can get messy and the costs can be high keeping in mind the huge accommodations for special interest groups that need including.

But there are limits to that.

The only way this system sustains itself is by maintaining a balance between cronyist capitalism and progress. Now that balance has been thrown off, and although it is not hurting the government yet, it will hurt the country's already stuttering and stumbling walk to democracy.