SWABI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders on Monday lamented that despite Peshawar High Court orders, the federal government was adamant not to lift ban on provision of new gas connections in Swabi.

Speaking at a meeting here on Monday, the PTI leaders, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar, said they would knock the doors of the court again for gas supply to over two dozen villages in NA-13, Swabi-II constituency.

Mr Qaisar recalled that the high court had handed down a decision in June last year, directing the SNGPL to provide gas supply to various villages of the district. However, he said the SNGPL was helpless as the federal government was unwilling to implement the court order. He maintained that in another decision given in the contempt of court case, the PHC had again directed the SNGPL to provide gas to the localities in NA-13, but to no avail.

He said the SNGPL had estimated that the gas supply to various villages would cost Rs600 million and the government had released Rs50 million for the purpose. However, Mr Qaisar said the SNGPL officials said they could not relax the ban on new connections.

He said now Rs750 million had been released by the federal government and Rs450 million by the KP government for the purpose.

“The gas pipeline was laid in various adjacent localities in 1995-96 but the people had remained deprived of the facility,” he said.

On the occasion, MNA Aqibullah Khan, the brother of Mr Qaisar, said they had persuaded the federal government to relax the ban, but no heed was paid to their demand, forcing them to file a writ petition in the court. He said Mr Qaisar had also requested the prime minister to relax the ban on supply of natural gas, but to no avail.

The PTI leaders said people of NA-13 constituency had become victim of the ‘discriminatory’ attitude of the federal government.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2017