ISLAMABAD - A petition seeking equal distribution of natural gas supply for domestic usage was moved in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) here on Monday.
The petition was filed by a resident of federal capital Saad Ahmed Rajput who sought equal distribution of natural gas supply for domestic usage, as natural gas loadshedding has badly disturbed the residents of twin cities.
The petitioner along with another petitioner Muhammad Zaheer cited secretary ministry of petroleum, chairman Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), general manager Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and SNGPL executive sales officers as respondents.
They contended before the court that the natural gas has been supplied in a discriminatory method and a few posh areas of the twin cities were getting gas with full pressure while the mediocre localities were forced to use other expensive sources of fuel.
However, Justice Noor-ul-Haq N Qureshi transferred the matter to the court of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui who had directed the SNGPL to supply compressed natural gas to the CNG gas stations on December 20, 2013.
Justice Siddiqui on the aforementioned date while hearing petitions of 77 CNG stations had directed the SNGPL to supply uninterrupted gas to all the CNG stations of Islamabad and Rawalpindi at least three days a week till further orders.
In the instant petition, the petitioner argued before the court that the domestic consumers living in the twin cities are facing acute shortage of gas supply and they should be treated on equal basis in terms of gas supply to the posh areas of the city.
Petitioner told the court that under the natural gas allocation and management policy 2005, domestic consumers were on the top priority of the distribution companies in term of supply of gas. He said that despite paying equal charges by all the residents “the natural gas is being supplied to the different sectors in a discriminatory manner and the most unfortunate picture of the wrong policies of the respondents is the issuance of licences to the CNG filling stations and the natural resources which could have been used for the hundred years for domestic and industrial use while the same natural gas resources are consumed in last ten years in our transportation system which clearly indicated the short sightedness and lack of planning of the respondent authorities.”
The petitioner said that in the name of loadshedding the domestic consumers are being forced to bear the economical cost in the shape of inflated gas bills and also they are paying a greater psychological cost in the shape of depression and anxiety that they have to go through the early hours in the morning.
“People were forced to buy food from hotels that is causing diseases,” he maintained. Therefore, the petitioner prayed to the court to direct the respondents to supply uninterrupted natural gas to the domestic consumers as per their priority order.