Return of the CNG: Gas sales resume in the twin cities

Only a handful of pumps in Islamabad selling CNG; long queues at stations.

ISLAMABAD:

Dozens of fuel stations in the twin cities resumed the sale of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) on Sunday after a gap of over 10 days.

The supply of gas, which CNG station owners claimed was forcibly disconnected in Punjab by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) at the start of January, only resumed after the stations’ owners got local courts to intervene.

Malang CNG owner Colonel (retd) Fazal Haq said some 200 to 300 CNG station owners in the twin cities had individually applied for stay orders from the Rawalpindi and Islamabad sessions courts to restart the sale of CNG. The courts ruled that CNG stations should be allowed to sell gas except for the three days of the week specified in the government’s load management schedule, Haq said.



But for the public — which had resigned itself to the relatively pricier petrol in the absence of CNG — the relief was packaged in more frustration. Long queues formed in front of CNG stations as people lined up for gas from the early morning.

At the Mujahid (Pakistan State Oil) petrol pump near Karachi Company in Sector G-9, Ghulam Mustafa, a taxi driver from Islamabad, said he had waited in line for eight hours - from 10am to 6pm - for his turn to get CNG.



“When am I going to earn anything if I have to sit in this line for the whole day?” Mustafa said.

Mustafa said petrol is not an option for him because his daily income is slashed in half when he drives his taxi on petrol.

A few cars further back, Hamza Amir, who works at a currency exchange shop in Blue Area, said he even ate his lunch in the queue outside the station.

“The public has been left red-faced because of the CNG issue,” Amir said. “If this situation persists, the only option left for us is to permanently park our cars at home.”



He was vocal about the government’s failure to facilitate the general public on the CNG issue and termed it an “injustice”.

Consumers were not the only unhappy ones though, as CNG station owners also expressed their discontent.

“CNG station owners still have reservations about the current price of CNG,” Haq said. “However, the union decided to resume sales because of the hardships faced by the consumers.”

To a question, Haq said that some of the owners got their stay orders between January 8 and 11.

While most CNG stations in Rawalpindi opened for business on Sunday, only a handful of stations were selling gas in Islamabad.

Muhammad Khalid, owner of the Mujahid petrol pump, said around 50 to 60 Islamabad pumps acquired a stay order from court before the weekend, “but most of them have are not selling CNG today because they are worried about incurring losses and the low pressure we are getting from the main lines”.

Khan said at the current price of Rs74.4 per kilogramme, CNG owners were making a profit of around four to five rupees per kilogramme.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2013.