ISLAMABAD: The federal government and the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) on Tuesday moved an intra-court appeal (ICA) in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the stay order, which enabled the CNG dealers to operate their business.

The SNGPL, however, refused to allow the CNG stations owners to resume their business on Tuesday as it had challenged the stay order and asked them to wait for the verdict.

But the owners again approached the court on Tuesday with a contempt petition against the gas pipelines, which will be taken up by the court on Thursday.

The government on December 2 had stopped the gas supply to the CNG stations for three months.

As many as 77 CNG dealers obtained the stay from the IHC on December 20.

The ministry of petroleum and the SNGPL filed the petition before the IHC Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi.

In the petition they contended that acute gas shortage forced them to suspend gas supply to the CNG sector for three months.

Justice Qureshi issued notices to the CNG station owners and adjourned the hearing till December 26.