KARACHI: The All-Pakistan CNG Association (APCNGA) and the Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) on Wednesday gave a seven-day ultimatum to the federal government for reversing its decision of increasing gas loadshedding from two to three days in Sindh during Ramazan.

Addressing a press conference along with KTI president Irshad Bokhari, Sindh APCNGA chairman Shabbir Sulemanji said that the federal government had taken this decision to deprive Sindh of its basic rights.

“Not only CNG station owners will be affected from this decision but the people in general will also suffer due to CNG closure for three days,” he said.

Mr Sulemanji said that they were informed about this decision on the 1st of Ramazan, which showed that the government was not interested in providing relief to the people in this month.

He said that if the new schedule for CNG stations closure was not withdrawn within seven days, they would initially stage a protest demonstration outside the SSGC headquarters and then shut all CNG stations across the country.

KTI president Irshad Bokhari said that if the government did not withdraw the decision within the deadline, transport operators in Karachi would not ply their vehicles.

Because of the three-day closure, thousands of people associated with the transport business would suffer a great deal of problems, he said.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd , 2014