KOHAT: The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) restored gas supply to the affected areas and resolved the problem of low pressure in other parts on Friday night following a meeting of women protesters with the administration.

The Pesco has also curtailed timings of outages by half and addressed the fluctuation issue. The unscheduled outages of one hour have been decreased to half an hour intermittently.

Deputy commissioner Roshan Mehsud after a meeting with the delegation of the protesting men and women on Friday afternoon had directed the SNGPL not to decrease the pressure from the Dhoda valve. He had also called for resumption of gas supply to areas where it had been suspended.

Hundreds of women and men of Bannu Road and city areas had staged a protest in front of the Kohat DC office earlier in the day against the suspension of gas supply.

CNG filling stations president Haji Islam had said that Kohat produced more than double the quantity against its requirement of gas. He claimed that the SNGPL staff turned off or halved the pressure from Dhoda valve.

He said there were clear instructions of the Peshawar High Court that there should be no loadshedding in Kohat which had about 16 oil and gas wells.

RIFT IN PTI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is witnessing a clear divide between the party ticket-holder and an independent nominee of the party workers for the city mayor slot.

Speaking in a jirga, the independent candidate Shafi Jan said on Saturday thathis father had founded the party in Kohat in 2000 when nobody knew it and held a big public rally for Imran Khan in the company park.

He said that as he had been denied the party ticket in 2013 and 2018 he was confident that he would get the ticket for city mayor seat this time.

A large number of PTI workers, lawyers and traders attended the jirga. He said the MNA, MPA and a senator had failed to bring a single mega project in eight years whereas the oil refinery had gone to another district.

Shafi Jan said the district committee awarded the ticket to Mansoor Bangash against whom he had no reservations because it was the decision of the workers. However, he said that influential mafia came into action and the party ticket had been awarded to a newcomer Suleman Shinwari under duress.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2021