The inspector general of the National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) on Monday conceded that the Motorway Police displayed negligence in the Bahawalpur tragedy. He was addressing a session of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Transportation.

The committee was briefed on the incident, following which IG Shaukat Hayat conceded that Motorway Police were unable to fulfill their responsibility on the day of the incident.

"Neither an ambulance nor fire brigade was informed [in time]," Hayat said.

Hayat informed the committee that two officials are supposed to be present at all times in the Motorway Control Room, but on the day of the incident, both were absent.

Furthermore, "police was not informed [of the accident] and motorway police failed to seal the area," he conceded.

He said that an inquiry into the incident was underway and appropriate action would be taken against those found responsible.

Hayat also notified that the responsibility for granting fitness certificates to fuel-carrying vehicles fell on the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), and claimed that his department had made efforts to ensure drivers had valid driving licenses, which falls under its purview.

"We tried to start a driving school [for truckers] but were told that we were not authorised to do so," Hayat said.

Expressing concerns over recent oil tanker accidents, the committee asked if the drivers were intoxicated at the time of crashes, adding that with the current standards, oil tankers are like live bombs.

National Highway and Motorway Police authorities have already suspended six officers, including a deputy superintendent of police, for negligence and keeping their senior officers in the dark (when the oil tanker overturned and caught fire).

Incident and aftermath

The death toll from the Bahawalpur oil tanker explosion climbed to 218 on Friday.

Apart from more than 150 people killed immediately in the fire, more than 100 people had suffered burn injuries in the incident which took place on June 25.

The disaster occurred when a tanker carrying 40,000 litres of fuel overturned after trying to make a sharp turn while travelling from Karachi to Vehari on the main highway, and hundreds of residents of a nearby village gathered to collect the leaking fuel.

“After about 10 minutes the tanker exploded in a huge fireball and enveloped the people collecting petrol. It was not clear how the fire started,” a police official said at the time.

Motorway policemen Taqqi Haider and Muhammad Irfan, along with the driver of the oil tanker, had tried to stop people from gathering around the overturned vehicle.

They also used a public address system to order them to vacate the site.

In a statement recorded to the police shortly before he passed away on Wednesday, Gul Muhammad, the driver of the tanker, confirmed that he had tried his best to stop people from gathering around the heavy vehicle but no one had paid attention.

Sources in the Motorway Police earlier told Dawn that the tanker had turned over after a sleep-deprived Gul Muhammad dozed off while driving the vehicle.