December 5, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 29,1423

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SAHIWAL, Dec 4: Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Chaudhry Naurez Shakoor Khan has said gas loadshedding in the industrial units would be carried out from Dec 15.

The domestic users would not be affected by the loadshedding, he said while speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday evening.

He said talks with the governments of Turkmenistan, Qatar and Iran were going on as the country faced 15 per cent shortage of natural gas.

He said prices of petroleum products were fixed according to the market fluctuations at international level. Whenever there was an increase in the prices of petroleum products, transporters immediately increase the fare. But when there was decrease in the prices they did not lower the fare, he added.

Mr Khan said the provincial governments would have to chalk out a formula to tackle the transport problem.

He said French company Total was exploring oil in the seas of Pakistan. Heavy oil reserves have been found near Gwadar port in Balochistan. Many foreign companies were also exploring oil in other parts of Balochistan, he added.

Mr Khan said smuggling of petrol from Iran has been stopped as the government took strong measures. Now the petroleum ministry was earning Rs20 billion profit, he continued.

PPP: Mr Khan claimed that in case the PPP forward bloc would not have stepped forward, the deadlock over convening of National Assembly session would not have been resolved. The forward bloc has saved the assembly from dissolution, he added.

He said the PPP was in the grip of a “qabza group”.

“Time will prove that our decision was right. Sections We have already submitted an application for the registration of the PPP (Patriot) with the election authority,” Mr Khan said.

Progress to some extent has been made on the withdrawal of cases against PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto but it would take time, he concluded.