RAWALPINDI: Motorists on Sunday got the bad news that there would be no supply of CNG on Monday (today).

The filling stations opened twice a week - on Monday and Thursday - under the government’s gas management plan.

But in its weekly schedule, the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) stopped supply to the filling stations on Monday.

“We received the schedule for the coming week on Sunday which stated that there would be no gas on Monday due to the shortage in the system,” said Mohammad Khalid, a CNG filling station owner.

A SNGPL official requesting not to be named told Dawn that there was a shortage of gas in the system due to which supply to the filling stations had been stopped.

Despite repeated attempts, SNGPL general manager (sales) Jawad Naseem could not be contacted for comments.

Gayyas Abdullah Paracha of the All-Pakistan CNG Association said: “We will start a protest if the government failed to provide gas to the CNG dealers on an alternate day. We would not accept the six-day closure of the filling stations.”

The association said the unilateral decision would hurt the interests of millions of citizens and thousands of CNG filling station owners. Therefore, it cannot be accepted under any circumstances, said Pervaiz Khan Khattak, the central chairman of the association. He said the closure of the CNG stations throughout Punjab on November 10 was unacceptable as there was no cold wave in any city.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2014