“Gas pressure has been low from the main pipeline, not at our end,” said Sajjad, a gas pump operator in Melody Market in G-6. He said the pressure is normally around 200 bars, but these days it is at 120 bars, due to which they have closed down two of their four filling units.
Long queues of cars and commercial transport vehicles were seen at pumps around the city. Hamid, the manager of a gas station near Karachi Company, attributed the rush to the closure of most gas pumps in Rawalpindi. However, he too complained of low gas pressure.
Public transporters and citizens in Rawalpindi also faced severe problems due to the closure of most stations.
Yasir Kayani, a resident of Shamsabad, said that he went around Dhok Kala Khan and adjoining areas but could not find CNG. “I don’t know why there is no gas on Sunday, it’s not an off day,” he said.
The owner of one pump not providing gas said that the station was closed because their association has called for a strike due to the “indiscriminate price” fixed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).
However, the widespread closures were apparently not part of a coordinated decision.
“We have not called for any strike. It is the decision of individual station owners to shut down or operate,” All Pakistan CNG Association (APCA) Chairman Ghayas Paracha told The Express Tribune. He said some pumps were continuing to operate in the hope that the prices will be increased again soon, while others, unable to operate on losses, had shut down.
Paracha alleged that the government is preparing a new formula for gas prices to “phase out” gas stations and the commodity’s availability. “The Supreme Court did not fix the new prices. Ogra prepared it without consulting us,” he added.
On the other hand, Ogra said that stern action will be taken against gas stations not providing gas. The authority on Sunday threatened to cancel the licenses of the filling stations on strike.
Ogra Chairman Saeed Khan said that he had ordered an inquiry into the stations not providing gas or supplying low pressure.
Responding to the claims that gas stations are suffering losses, Khan said, “We have provided them with ad hoc marginal profit of Rs6.22 per kilogram.”
He said they told APCA to submit their apprehensions and other price-related issues in writing, “but they have not done so.”
Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th, 2012.
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Nice work as attention has been brought to an issue where from too many other issues can also be picked for a news story..... Issues can addressed from grass route level and this work is a base for immense issues like human tactic in making crisis of gas, like lack of implementation of Judicial orders, like negligence from law enforcement agencies to impose orders of the apex court, like no respect for the court orders etc... And all the credit goes here to the one who wrote this piece as he picked a broad sensed issue into the eyes of masses......