ISLAMABAD – Residents of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi anticipating hardships in the wake of strike of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations for indefinite period across Punjab from April 13, have called for early solution to the problem.
The All Pakistan CNG Association has decided to shut filling stations, including petrol pumps, only in Lahore for an indefinite period against two-day weekly closure.
“The people will have to face great difficulties due to closure of CNG stations as they cannot afford to run their vehicles on petrol”, said Mir Janan, a taxi-driver.
“Our land is gifted with immense natural resources but unfortunately our leaders have failed to explore the latent wealth for the masses’s prosperity and development,” he said.
Matiullah Khan, a private sector employee, said that solution for increasing demand for gas lies in importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), suggesting efforts be expedited in collaboration with the private sector to import the LNG.
He opined there were always several options to an issue and the stakeholders should weigh all aspects of such a tough decision, which would directly hit the commuters.
On elapse of March 15 deadline, several CNG stations are reported to remain open throughout the week, prompting the authorities to conduct raids.
“Despite assurances and commitment by the government to end gas loadshedding from March 15, the closure continues, affecting the commuters”, said a spokesman of the All Pakistan CNG Association. He said the association had tried its level best to resolve the issue through negotiations but the authorities were offering no solid solution.
He claimed that the country had sufficient gas reserves and there was no gas crisis but poor policy and mismanagement were allegedly responsible for the prevailing situation.
He said that at present over 3.5 million vehicles were using CNG as fuel, besides CNG stations were providing direct and indirect employment to thousands of poor people. Thus the gas loadshedding for the CNG sector was depriving thousands of poor people from their livelihood.
He said the Petroleum Retailers Association also would join the strike in Lahore to protest against the demolition of the petrol pumps, low commission and cancellation of lease.
He said the CNG was fuel of a common man and mostly consumed by public transport, thus the gas loadshedding should end. He also strongly criticized the proposal doing rounds that the prices of CNG would be brought on par with that of the petrol in a bid to divert more gas for power production. He said elsewhere in the world, conversion to CNG was encouraged for being environment-friendly but here the sector was rolled back through unjustified measures like loadshedding, he added.
Residents call for early solution to CNG problem
