KOHAT: The social circles and consumers have rejected the decision of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited to supply gas only for eight hours in winter.

Haji Abid Khan, chairman of Grand Business Alliance, said commercial and domestic consumers were already hit hard by unscheduled electricity outages, and now SNGPL had come up with such a plan, which was not acceptable to people.

Haji Sajid, chairman of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CNG stations’ association, said already gas supply was suspended to the district from 10pm to 6am. He blasted the SNGPL for allegedly directing gas supply to industries in Punjab at the cost people, on whose land the gas was found. Mr Sajid said on his petition, the Peshawar High Court had passed an order, observing that the first right over gas was of the people of the production areas, but SNGPL had failed to implemented the court order.

An elder, Akhunzada Faheem, and Shah Mehmood, president of Sons of Kohat, blasted SNGPL for depriving the locals of gas facility.

ARRESTED: The police on Wednesday arrested an employee of Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST) while carrying 1.7 kilogrammes of hashish.

In a statement, district police officer Farhan Khan said the varsity employee, Bakir, was ruining the students’ future by making them addicted to drugs.

He said the accused, a resident of Miankhel area, had been selling drugs to students for months. He said the man was booked under section 9C of Control of Narcotics Substance Act, 1997.

Separately, the police recovered the body of a man in Kaghazai area of Kohat on Wednesday.

Officials said Ghaffar, a resident of Kaghazai, informed the cantonment police that body of a man was lying in a guava orchard. They said a Rescue 122 team and the police shifted the body to the KDA Teaching Hospital for autopsy.

They said the deceased, Hazrat Bilal, a Levies official, and originally belonging to Orakzai district, was currently living in Hangu district.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2023