Bombs on wheels: SHC orders substandard CNG kits to be removed

Sindh High Court bench warns officials will be in risk of contempt if orders are not followed.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court has asked the federal and provincial government officials to ensure substandard gas cylinders and tanks and CNG kits are removed from public transport vehicles.

If these orders are not followed within two weeks, officials would risk being in contempt, warned the bench headed by Justice Maqbool Baqar. Petitioner Rana Faizul Hasan has gone to court, seeking a ban on the energy equipment in public and private transport. He argued that several people had lost their lives in accidents caused by faulty and low quality gas cylinders in public transport, but the authorities had failed to take action against them. Two passengers were killed and many others were injured when a gas cylinder explosed in a mini-bus while it was refilling at a CNG station on Abul Hassan Isphahani Road in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on November 17.

The petitioner had pleaded the court to order that only the government-verified cylinders and CNG kits should be used. The court was also requested to order an end to decanting of LPG in densely populated areas.

On November 28, 2012, the court had given the governments more time.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2013.