Political parties slam ‘vanishing’ of gas

Alliance of political outfits lament poor delivery of services

QUETTA: All parties’ leaders have criticised the SSGC (Sui Southern Gas Company), Wapda (Water and Power Development Authority), and Wasa (Water and Sanitation Agency) for poor services in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday at Quetta Press Club, Maulana Qadir Luni, representing all parties lamented that gas had vanished in Quetta, Mastung, Ziarat, Pishin, and Kalat districts with the beginning of the winter season despite the fact that Sui was discovered from Dera Bugti.

“All the governments have accepted the fact that priority is to be given to those areas where the resources belong to,” he said.

“But unfortunately, there is almost no gas in Quetta and elsewhere in the province, especially in the winter season,” he added.

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Luni noted that in Quetta and other parts of the province, people cooked two meals at night due to lack of gas or its low pressure.

“After the installation of new metres in place of the older ones, SSGC charges thousands of rupees from the users, unjustifiably. Not only are the people, but we, the leaders of political parties, have been threatened by officials of SSGC,” he complained.

He said that people in Quetta could neither burn wood nor coal.

Luni maintained that the officials of Wapda and Wasa were least bothered about the residents of Quetta as they came from the federal government.

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“Like SSGC, Wapda uses faster metres to put the burden on the consumers,” he observed. He regretted that tanker mafia was ruling the roost in Quetta despite the approval of water projects in the city for long.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Hazara Democratic Party (HDP), Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Nazriyati (JUI-N), Jamat-e-Islami and others made up this all parties conglomerate.

The parties warned to launch a protest on November 27 in front of the governor and chief minister house if their demands were not met by the provincial government.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2019.