PESHAWAR/CHARSADDA: Gas loadshedding and low pressure continued in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, especially in Peshawar and Charsadda, forcing the consumers to take to the streets on Monday.

Gas consumers belonging to various localities of the provincial capital held a demonstration outside the press club and demanded smooth supply of natural gas to their areas. They said gas supply to the localities was next to nil, especially during the evening and morning hours. They said localities of Faqirabad, Hayatabad, Shaheen Colony, Defence Colony, Dalazak Road, Hazar Khwani, Bara Gate were the worst affected.

They complained that gas supply was suspended in the morning and restored late in the night while in many areas there was low gas pressure. “We are forced to purchase firewood and LPG cylinders,” Ihtesham Bashir of Dalazak Road protested.

Khan Zaman Afridi, a transporter, said due to low gas pressure there had been long queues of vehicles outside CNG stations.

“It is very astonishing that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is producing gas, but its people are suffering due to its shortage,” he lamented.

Similarly, residents of posh Hayatabad Township were also complaining about low gas pressure, saying they could not cook food and had to buy bread from the market.

An official of SNGPL denied any gas loadshedding was taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and said the low pressure was due to multiple gas connections taken from main supply lines.

He said work on replacement of supply lines at many places had been in progress.

Meanwhile, gas consumers in parts of Charsadda district, including Rajar, Amirabad, Prang and Majo, led by district naib nazim Mussawir Shah observed a sit-in on Peshawar-Islamabad Road, suspending vehicular traffic for some time.

The protesters warned to besiege the SNGPL office if it failed to ensure smooth gas supply to the areas. They blamed SNGPL officials for intentionally reducing gas pressure to the residential areas in order to facilitate the CNG stations for their vested interests.

A local SNGPL official, Salman Khan, said work on replacement of old pipeline was in progress to overcome the problem of gas shortage in the district.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015