A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday against the three-day closure of compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Punjab immediately after Eidul Fitr adding to the miseries of motorists and the public at large. Advocate Shahid Gilani filed the petition making the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority (OGRA), Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and the Petroleum and Natural Resources Ministry as respondents. Highlighting the miseries of the public due to the CNG stations’ closure, the petitioner requested the court to order the federal government and respondents to devise a standard procedure for conducting gas load shedding or closure of CNG stations, which should never be for three days, as it was unbearable for the public.
The petitioner requested the court to issue orders to set up an independent commission to probe into the cause of the CNG crisis and take action against those responsible officials if found guilty. Referring to the CNG crisis that has crippled motorists who got their vehicles shifted to gas in wake of an unusual surge in petrol prices, the petitioner said it seemed that the respondents and the federal government were least bothered about any difficulties of the masses due to the gas stations’ closure.
Shahid said that the wave of frustration had traveled down the spine of the country with news that CNG stations in Lahore region including Lahore, Okara, Sahiwal, Sialkot and Gujranwala would be observing a three-day closure starting from the first working day after Eid holidays. The petitioner alleged that the SNGPL was in the grip of incompetent officials from bottom to top most of whom were recruited on political basis without following any merit policy and the same officials were liable for the gas crisis. He requested the court to order the federal government to make recruitments on merit and remove those incompetent officials after a standard inquiry of recruitments done in the last decade.
