The three-day closure of CNG filling stations has badly hit some 500,000 labourers across the country working at these CNG pumps since most of them have either been sacked or handed down a significant cut in salary. Following the government’s decision to close CNG stations for three days a week, most of the CNG station owners have fired at least half of their labour force while the rest have to go through a fifty percent cut in their salaries.
Talking to Pakistan Today, All Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) President Ghayas Paracha said that the government’s treatment of CNG filling stations has deprived 500,000 people of their livelihoods and there was every likelihood that CNG stations would be closed one after the other. He said the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Resources wanted to increase the sale of petrol by reducing the gas supply to CNG stations.
“The government is pushing the CNG sector towards a state of desolation just to provide gas to some bigwigs and its blue-eyed industrialists.” he alleged. Replying to a question regarding the press conference by the Petroleum Association the other day, Paracha said that there was no petroleum association and people who held a news conference were fake.
Asked if the the increasing number of CNG filling stations was one of the major reasons for gas shortages, Paracha said 3500 CNG stations operation in Punjab and federal capital consumed only 8% of the country’s total gas production. “If a hundred more CNG pumps are built, it will not affect the gas sector,” he added.
He said it seems as if the people at the helm haven’t realized the extent of losses due to the closure of CNG stations. “Citizens will be deprived of transport because more than fort million vehicles run on CNG” the APCNG president said. The CNG owners, he said, would go on strike if the government failed to mitigate their suffering.
On other hand, the government has claimed that the three-day gas curtailment to the CNG sector was being carried out amid a severe shortage of the commodity. It said gas saved from the CNG shutdown would be diverted to the industrial sector and independent power producers.
“More than 140 public vans run on CNG in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, but owing to the closure of CNG for three days only 10 to 15 percent are actually on the roads,” said Fahad Aslam, a van driver. He said the drivers have been forced to halt their vehicles since they could not afford to run their vehicles on petrol.
Van drivers told Pakistan Today that a trip between Khanna Pull and F/8 Markaz cost Rs 700 on petrol and they hardly save a hundred rupees in one trip, which was not enough to make both ends meet. They said the government’s decision to close CNG stations for three days was tantamount to murdering them. Taxi drivers too are having a difficult time, but they make up for their losses by fleecing the public. They said people should take to the streets against the government’s decision instead of standing for hours on bus stops.
Separately, people commuting between their offices and workplaces are the ones who find themselves at the receiving end. Commuters have urged the government to work on a war footing to overcome the gas crisis and revoke its decision without ado.
Workers bear the brunt of CNG filling stations’ closure
