All that gas

Less than 10 years ago, the government bulldozed ahead with a strategy to shift the majority of vehicles plying our roads to CNG. This was done based on the rising cost of fuel imports and because we had natural gas reserves that would last us ‘hundreds of years’. These estimates were made by government and private sector feasibilities. In fact, it was based on these feasibilities that Pakistan saw billions of dollars invested in the fertiliser sector, too. The scenario is vastly different now.

In a recent decision, the Economic Coordination Committee has allocated CNG the lowest priority in the new gas load management plan, after domestic, general industry, power and cement industry. Viewed as an isolated decision, and in the current way CNG is being consumed, it is fair to allocate last priority to CNG. It is not a necessity. Initially viewed as the poor man’s fuel, it is being used by everyone but the poor.

However, if viewed as part of the bigger picture, then the government itself is to blame for the misuse of CNG. It is the lack of regulation that allowed people with expensive cars to install CNG kits. If the government had played its role in ensuring that CNG was used only by cars that were 1,000cc and smaller, and ensured that public transporters reduced their fares in line with the lower cost of CNG, we would not be in the current mess. It is unfair now to the people who paid for the conversion, to suddenly find that there is no more CNG. It is even more unfair to the investors who injected billions in installing CNG kits and pumps to suddenly be asked to shut up shop. And where are the government and private sector geologists who gave us gas reserves estimates, which have now been discredited? Why is there no accountability for them? But then, there really is no way to verify the government’s claim that now, we no longer have as much gas as we originally thought. We just have to take its word.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2013.