According to sources, the SNGPL management has formally issued a notice to the quarters concerned, asking them to provide gas to the industry in the province for three and a half days a week, changing the earlier five-day supply schedule.
The sources said on Feb 27, President Asif Ali Zardari had directed the authorities concerned, in a meeting attended by the managing directors of the SNGPL, PEPCO and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) chairman Gohar Ijaz, to provide gas to the industry for five days a week.
But, the SNGPL authorities could follow the president’s orders only for a month.
The SNGPL decision is yet another shock for the industrialists and the business community, already reeling under the gas cuts.
Rao Saifur Rehman, a senior member of Aptma’s Faisalabad chapter, said the federal government adopted a
discriminatory attitude towards Punjab’s industrialists.
“We are surprised why the government is depriving only Punjab business community of gas. In Sindh the government is providing uninterrupted gas to the industry as well as the general consumers round-the-clock,” he deplored.
He said Aptma had earlier announced a ‘long march’ on March 5 against the government for massive gas loadshedding in Punjab. But, it postponed the march after the law minister Rana Sanaullah assured the industrialists that Chief Minister
Shahbaz Sharif would take up the matter with the federal government.
Mr Rehman said President Zardari also took notice of the situation and ordered the quarters concerned to supply gas to Punjab industry for five days a week and observe loadshedding for the remaining two days.
“President’s intervention helped the industrialists run their businesses smoothly, but the recent SNGPL move that
increased loadshedding duration by one and a half days is a clear violation of his orders,” he added.
He said a number of textile mills had already been closed due to power and gas shortages, leaving thousands of workers jobless.
Mr Rehman demanded the government should immediately look into the matter and ensure implementation of president’s orders. “The government must remember that we have only postponed our long march and not cancelled it,” he warned.
SNGPL Deputy Managing Director K W Shariq, explaining the move, said the company, after the president’s intervention, had started supplying gas to the industry for five days a week and observed the remaining two days as ‘holiday’. “But, the recent requisition by Wapda authorities for additional gas supply to power plants has forced us to observe loadshedding for industrial sector for three and a half days,” he said. However, he hastened to add that the SNGPL would “keep supplying gas to the industry for five days as per president’s orders”, failing to explain how the ‘miracle’ would be done.
He, however, claimed the management would overcome the problem by March 31 and the situation would become ‘normal’ by the first week of next month
