All Pakistan CNG Association’s request for a stay order against the three-day weekly gas closure was turned down by the Lahore High Court on Monday.
The plea was denied after a Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) representative told the court that the sector was already getting a major portion of the supply.
The association counsel objected to the figures presented by the SNGPL regarding gas supplied to the filling stations and the sector’s demand. However, the court asked him to file a separate application challenging the figures.
The SNGPL had submitted that the CNG filling stations across the province were being supplied 87 per cent of their demand while the other sectors were receiving 64 per cent of their demand.
Opposing the petition, the SNGPL counsel submitted that the association wanted to create “a monopoly”.
Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah perused the gas allocation chart for all sectors and then refused to stay the three-day weekly gas loadshedding for CNG filling stations. The judge observed that under the circumstances, all sectors should share the shortage.
However, he sought a written reply from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on the association’s main writ petition challenging the authority of federal government in implementing the gas load management plan bypassing Ogra’s lawful jurisdiction.
An Ogra member had recorded evidence on Wednesday. The association, through its central chairman Ghias Abdullah Paracha, has prayed the court to declare the impugned act as unconstitutional and in violation of citizens’ fundamental rights.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 16th, 2011.
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