QUETTA: Despite tall claims by the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) about improving the gas pressure in Balochistan, there was no supply of natural gas to most parts of the province on Sunday.

Most of the areas in Quetta, which has been experiencing extremely cold weather, were without gas supply the whole day.

The non-availability of gas in the freezing temperatures has made life miserable in the city where a large number of people have reportedly fallen ill. According to sources, there has been a considerable increase in the number of patients in government hospitals and private clinics over the past few days.

A few days ago, Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal visited Quetta along with SSGC officials and issued special directives for uninterrupted gas supply to the provincial capital with sufficient pressure.

After the minister’s directives, the company had claimed that gas pressure in Quetta and other parts of the province had been increased by supplying more gas from Shikarpur to the main supply line for the province.

But, no considerable improvement in gas pressure was reported. When contacted, an official of the SSGC told Dawn that gas pressure for Balochistan had been increased from 50 to 180 MMCFT. He said the reason behind the low gas pressure was an increase in its consumption because of the cold weather.

Sunday was a particularly difficult day for people in Quetta because in addition to non-availability of gas some areas of the city faced electricity breakdown.

Abdullah Baloch, a resident of Jinnah Town, told this correspondent that his area faced power breakdown on Sunday because of which people could not use electric heaters.

Hundreds of people in the city were reportedly searching for firewood that had also become a scarce commodity.

According to sources, the price of firewood witnessed a sharp increase due to its increasing demand over the past few days.

Protests were held in Quetta and other cities of the province against the suspension of gas supply.

In Quetta a large number of people gathered outside the press club and raised slogans against the government and the gas company.

They called upon the chief minister to take notice of the suspension of gas supply in the province.