As winter season picked up speed the dwellers of the federal capital are feeling the chill. With gas pressure falling at an all time low, coupled with unscheduled and prolonged load shedding, residents have to turn to firewood or gas cylinders to survive.
The massive gas outages have became a constant source of nuisance for the residents of the metropolitan, due to which they are facing hard times, especially in the morning and at night.
Talking to Pakistan Today, people from various areas of the metropolitan complained about the massive gas load-shedding and low pressure. Sending children to schools without their breakfast has become a routine matter for some, as it takes hours to cook food.
“There is either no gas at all or the pressure is so low that it serves no purpose,” said Ali, who lives in sector G-6/4. The only alternative available to people is a gas cylinder, which, due to its high cost, is often not feasible, he maintained.
Lashing out at the government, Arshad, a dweller of F-10/3, said that there is no dearth of gas in the country, but it the wrong priorities of the present and past governments due to which the masses are facing hours-long of unscheduled load-shedding and low pressure.
He said that the government could construct expensive projects like Motorways and the Metro Bus in record times, but it could not provide gas to domestic consumers despite its availability in a huge quantity.
Residents in rural areas of the federal capital are facing similar situations due to which they are left with no choice but to rely on gas cylinders and firewood or coal.
“At night we either use electric heaters or firewood to our houses warm,” said Rafiq Khan, who lives in Alipure.
He said that some poor people had purchased smaller cylinders and were getting them refilled from shops, adding, “I purchased two-kg LPG for Rs 300, which only lasts one-day.”
Shahid Abbasi, a resident of Kot Katyal in Bhara Kahu, lamented that they were left with no option but to rely on collecting wood from nearby areas. Using a gas cylinder is not affordable for his family because of his low income.
It is not only the poor domestic consumers that are suffering. Stories from managements of restaurants in the federal capital are much worse. The management of Islamabad Hotel told this scribe that there has been zero pressure since the last month, due to which the restaurant has had to resort to using gas cylinders.
Talking to Pakistan Today, people complained about the apathy of the government and asked how they were supposed to afford three meals a day, when they were being forced to make purchases from hotels, or had to resort to buying expensive LPG or firewood.
The SNGPL faces severe problems to meet the demand every winter not only due to high rise in need of domestic and commercial sectors, but because of the non-serious attitude of the present and past governments towards addition of gas in SNGPL’s network coupled with the company’s own failure to control the theft and distribution losses.
When contacted, PTI MNA Asad Umer said that there are mainly two reasons for the problem, the first is that despite tall claims the government miserably failed to add anything to the total production of gas during its two-and-a-half-year tenure, while the second the unjust distribution of the commodity.
He said that the country is faced with acute load-shedding due to the wrong policies of the government, adding that some areas have ample gas, while the rest are facing severe gas problems due to the incumbent government’s policies of nepotism and favouritism.
However, an SNGPL official, when contacted, said that there is nothing with government policies, but there other factors that are responsible for the load shedding and gas pressure.
