PESHAWAR, Jan 10: The Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) on Monday stopped the supply of gas to all industrial units in the NWFP which use gas as a fuel, bringing their production to a halt.

SNGPL Peshawar General Manager Imdad Hussain said the measure was necessary to protect domestic consumers who otherwise would have been badly hit. Earlier, the SNGPL stopped the supply only to the industrial units operating in the Gadoonamanzai Industrial estate who have installed captive power units to convert natural gas into power to continue their manufacturing process.

"The supply of gas to industrial units using natural gas as fuel for their production processes was stopped on Monday, rendering a large number of industrial units closed in Peshawar's Hayatabad Industrial Estate and at a small industrial estate situated on the Kohat Road," Sarhad Chambers of Commerce and Industry President Malik Niaz told Dawn.

He said the issue of the stoppage of gas supply to Gadoonamazai industrial estate was taken up by affected members of the Sarhad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) with the Minister for Industries and Production and Special Initiatives Jehangir Khan Tareen on Monday. The SCCI president termed the move discriminatory and an attempt to hit the textile industry of the NWFP.

"The gas supply to textile units has been suspended only in the NWFP whereas those set up in Punjab continue to get unhindered supply of gas," claimed the SCCI president in opening remarks at the outset of a meeting between the minister and members of the chamber.

Mr Malik informed the minister that the matter had also been taken up with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz under a letter which was faxed to him on Monday. The minister reportedly asked the SCCI members to send a delegation to meet him in Islamabad on Tuesday so that a meeting could be arranged with Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Khan Jadoon.

Mr Malik told Dawn that the prime minister had been apprised about "negative effects" of the suspension of gas supply to industrial units in Gadoonamanzai.