MANSEHRA: All Pakistan Compressed Natural Gas Association local chapter made the decision to contest the federal government’s decision to cut off gas supplies to CNG outlets throughout the province in December and January.

Divisional president of the association Khalid Latif told Dawn here on Saturday that they would file a lawsuit against the government in the Peshawar High Court if it didn’t reverse its decision to halt natural gas supply to CNG stations in the district and the rest of the province under its gas load management for the winter.

He said that their group called meetings in Abbottabad on Monday, November 4, and Peshawar the following week to talk about gas loadshedding and the tariff discrepancies between compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pricing.

“We want the government to avoid such unilateral decision of suspending gas to CNG stations for two months, and CNG’s price reduction by more than 35 per cent when compared to LPG to protect the domestic production,” Mr Latif said.

According to Mohammad Kamran, provincial general secretary of the CNG Association, they urged the government to rescind its decision of closing CNG stations for two months, and instead, use the loadshedding formula that was previously used to stop the gas supply to vehicles at night and in the morning.

Since only 35,000 vehicles in the Peshawar region were using CNG alone, Mr Kamran stated that if the government complied with its plan, inflation would be further increased. He also predicted that the number of these vehicles would equal that of the Hazara and Mardan regions.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2024