PESHAWAR: The suspension of gas supply to CNG stations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa irked both transporters and owners of the filling stations as the former threatened to observe wheel jam strike if the supply was not restored till Friday.

The owners of CNG stations also said that they would reopen their filling stations on Friday if government did not withdraw the decision.

All Pakistan CNG Association provincial chairman Fazal Muqeem Khan told this scribe that Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) issued a notice on June 13 about suspension of gas supply to all CNG stations in the province until June 16.

He said it was surprising that the cyclonic storm in the east-central Arabian Sea posed a threat to Karachi where gas supply was stopped on June 14 but in KP it was suspended on June 13 for unknown reasons.

Threaten wheel jam strike; owners say they will reopen filling stations if supply not restored till Friday

The notification said that gas supply was suspended due to sudden depletion of system pack and on account of acute shortage of gas. It said that gas supply would be immediately restored as and when optimum system pack was maintained.

“The government has assured us to restore the gas supply till Friday. We will open CNG stations on our own in case the supply is not restored till 1pm on Friday,” said Mr Khan. He said that KP had enough gas to meet its requirement but it was supplied to Punjab for power generation.

The suspension of gas supply to CNG stations has affected transporters in the provincial metropolis. The transport operators said they could not run their vehicles on petrol due to its high cost. They said that the decision had suffered thousands of daily wagers, transport operatives and other people associated with these sectors.

Public Transport Owners Association leader Khan Zaman Afridi, Mohmand Transport Association president Mohammad Alam and Muttahida Transport Workers Confederation president Noor Mohammad in a joint statement here on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the government’s decision and said that maximum of public transport vehicles remained off road in the provincial metropolis owing to closure of gas stations.

“We will announce wheel jam strike in case the federal government does not restore gas supply till Friday morning,” they threatened and said that the gas suspension caused serious financial issues to them.

They said that natural gas was a product of KP but despite that people in the province were deprived of the facility. They said that if government did not restore the gas supply, the transporters would go on a wheel jam strike and protest strongly in all districts of the province.

Domestic consumers have also complained of gas suspension during peak hours and demanded of the SNGPL officials to ensure smooth supply of gas to them.

Our correspondent in Kohat adds: Transporters said that they faced a lot of problems and financial issues owing to suspension of gas supply to filling stations.

Behram Khan, a transporter, told Dawn that they could not perform duty and take commuters to Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, and Karak owing to suspension gas supply to filling stations.

Long queues of vehicles were seen at a filling station in KDA as drivers had to spend nights in vehicles for their turn in the hot weather.

Wakeel, a driver, said that they had to go home empty handed if they could not find gas. He said that vehicles came to Kohat from Karak district for getting gas as it was a bit cheap in the district. He said that the vehicles coming from the other district were causing rush.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2023