PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Monday moved Peshawar High Court to seek directive for the federal government to complete Pak-Iran gas pipelines project at the earliest to address the issue of natural gas loadshedding in the country.

Advocate Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel filed a petition also requesting the court to declare as illegal the creation of different slabs by the government on units’ consumption by natural gas consumers for purpose of monthly billing.

The petitioner requested the court that the rate of natural gas should be unified for each unit of natural gas consumed and there should not be any slabs in it.

Few days ago, the petitioner had filed a petition against continuous loadshedding of natural gas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa specially Peshawar, requesting to declare its non-supply to the province as illegal and unconstitutional.

Lawyer also requests PHC to declare different slabs of gas consumption illegal

The petitioner stated KP was producing natural gas more than its requirement and under Article 158 of the Constitution the needs of the province had to be met first before supplying it to other provinces.

The respondents in the petition are: Ministry of Energy and Power Division through its secretary, KP government through its chief secretary and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) through its chief executive.

In the present petition, the petitioner stated that Pakistan had entered into agreement with Government of Iran in 1995 for provision of natural gas facility to Pakistan and on part of Iran the work on pipeline till Pakistan’s border had already been completed.

He said that Iran had also offered Pakistan $500 million to help with construction of the pipelines, but due to the US pressure Pakistan could not complete the pipeline within the stipulated time. He states that Pakistan has violated the terms and condition of the agreement and may face heavy penalties in near future.

The petitioner states that the ruling PTI chairman had promised before the general elections that he would not come under any foreign pressure and would go to any extent for making Pakistan prosperous but now he appears to be helpless in this regard.

He states that recently the prime minister also did not attend an important summit in Malaysia due to pressure of Saudi Arabia, which brought bad name to the country.

He contends that there is dire need of gas and oil in the country that can be imported easily from Iran but the government has not been availing that option.

About the mechanism of monthly gas billing on basis of different slabs of consumption, the petitioner states that the criterion devised by the government is not recognised throughout the world.

The petitioner states that the government has created slabs in which a domestic consumer is paying different rates of unit and if he exceeds the limit of units in one slab which he consumed, the government charges him at higher rate.

He contends that in normal business when a consumer purchases something in bulk, he buys it at lesser rate than the one, who purchases a single item. Contrary to that normal practice, he says, the government has fixed excessive rates for consumers, who consume more natural gas.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2020