Gas shortage across city: File complaints against CNG station owners, says PHC

Suggests making gas theft a non-bailable offence with 10-year prison sentence.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday asked respondents to file complaints against CNG station owners refusing to sell the fuel at rates suggested by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

Hearing a petition filed over the unavailability of gas in the provincial capital and its suburbs, PHC Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan ordered Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) general manager for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Muhammad Haroon to file complaints in order to obtain arrest warrants against non-complying station owners.

Khan asked why loadshedding for gas was taking place despite the closure of around 70% of CNG stations across the city.

Haroon told the court via phone that the company maintains 90 pounds of gas pressure during daytime, but reduces it to 45 pounds at night.

“We reduce it to help pipelines cope with the gas pressure and to deter CNG stations from selling the fuel at night,” said Haroon, adding that there was no shortage in the province as it was able to send 134 million cubic feet of gas to Punjab.

Haroon also said people in many areas refuse to pay their gas bills, and that the company’s employees are sometimes targeted by uncooperative customers when they try to remove metres.



Justice Khan asked the company to seek advice from the federal and provincial governments along with the interior ministry on how to decrease theft. “PHC will also provide support in chalking out laws to curb gas theft. Otherwise, it will get as bad as it is with electricity.”

The provincial chief justice also suggested making gas theft a non-bailable offence with a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment. This, he said, would deter people from stealing gas in the future.

He added that under Article 187, the PHC was empowered to take action against CNG owners violating Ogra’s directions. He also alleged that a ‘gas mafia’ was behind the problem.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5^th, 2012.