Sui Northern, owners battle for CNG

Owners of CNG stations challenge daily 9-hour supply shutdown notice in court.

ISLAMABAD: The owners of Compress Natural Gas (CNG) stations have taken Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited to court over its orders to cut off the supply to the public for nine hours a day. They are already closing for the weekends and losing revenue as a result.

The CNG stations of Kahuta filed a writ petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday, challenging the Sui Northern notification dated December 27, 2010.

“It is difficult for them to cut the supply of gas nine hours a day [in addition to the] two-day weekend holidays [that they are already observing] according to the load management plan,” argued the lawyer for the petitioning CNG stations, Muhammad Ilyas Mian.

This is not the first time Sui Northern has issued orders to CNG stations. In a letter on December 9, the gas supplier told them that they would have to stay closed on Fridays and Saturdays. Sui Northern came up with the load management plan because supplies run low in the winter.

Ilyas Mian said that all the CNG stations of the Potohar region were following the weekend orders despite facing a financial crunch.

According to him, Sui Northern officials also “threatened” the CNG station owners that the police would act against them if they did not follow the notification.

CNG stations opened up across the country on the government’s orders to offer the public an alternate to fuel, said Ilyas Mian. And in fact, the stations were set up in accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated by Sui Northern Gas itself and the ministry of petroleum. He argued that their December 27 orders went against this agreement.

Ilyas Mian told the court that cutting off the supply would be discriminating against the residents of Kahuta. He asked the court to strike down the order and declare it null and void.

Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan of Islamabad High Court issued notices to Sui Northern and the secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum, asking them to submit a reply to the petition by January 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2011.