The recently launched CNG bus service in Lahore has come up against serious roadblocks in view of the ongoing gas shortage. The bus operators have threatened to discontinue the service in case the promise of declaring these vehicles exempt from weekly gas holidays was not honoured. Their grouse is quite understandable. On gas holidays, the buses come to a grinding halt and afflict huge financial loses to the operators. Also it is clear that if the new bus service is rolled back, thousands of commuters will be deprived of a decent and comfortable source of transportation to travel within the city. The situation has worsened because reportedly the gas supply is being diverted from industry and is used for power generation. The government should wake up now and must quickly complete the construction work on the Iranian gas pipeline. The Iranians have confirmed that the pipeline within their territory has been laid and all that needed to be done was its construction inside Pakistan. The delay on this vital project is only criminal given the soaring energy crisis. At the same time, we must explore every other avenue to fulfil the gas shortage. With the phenomenal explosion in population during the past few decades and the subsequent growth of economy, our energy demand has greatly shot up. In fact the sad thing is that despite the discovery of new gas reserves inside the country, they could not be developed and are hence not adding anything to the current supply. Likewise the Thar coal reserves are also lying untapped even though they are one of the largest in the world and would usher in an era of prosperity. It is little wonder that during all these years of inaction, the economy has been pushed to the brink and things have come to such a pass that there is not even enough gas to run the CNG buses. These holidays virtually amount to paralysing the life of the city. The government must make it clear to the US that it must go ahead with the Iranian gas pipeline to fulfill needs and would brook no opposition. The CNG buses in Lahore must be declared free from the gas holidays so as to keep the life flowing in the provincial capital. The gas supply to Punjab particularly the major cities like Faisalabad that was once called the Manchester of Pakistan for its textile industry must be fully restored. The work on the IP project as well as other options of tapping the gas reserves of Balochistan must be started on a war-footing.