KARACHI: While Sindh, particularly Karachi, has been experiencing either hour-long gas loadshedding or low pressure for the past many weeks, the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) on Monday officially announced that domestic consumers would get gas only for total eight hours in a day — morning, afternoon and evening — during “meal timing”.

“As per the prime minister’s directives, SSGC is ensuring gas supply to its customers during meal hours as per the given schedule,” the utility said in a tweet.

According to the schedule mentioned in the tweet, the utility would supply gas in the morning time i.e. from 6am to 9am; then in the afternoon from 12pm to 2pm and then evening from 6pm to 9pm.

“Adhering to the directives of the prime minister, SSGC shall facilitate its domestic consumers, who are placed on top priority by the government of Pakistan, by ensuring the availability of gas supplies during meal timing, thrice a day,” said a statement.

SSGC announcement gives rise to fear of 16-hour loadshedding

While the SSGC preferred to stay silent about the remaining 16 hours of the day, the new gas schedule has given rise to speculations that the people would continue to face loadshedding in most parts of the day.

The beginning of the winter season has brought unannounced and prolonged gas loadshedding in the metropolis and other parts of the province piling miseries on people, mainly students and office-going people.

Despite the SSGC assurance, almost every locality in the city has been facing very low pressure or no supply of gas during peak hours for the past several days and the gas utility’s complaint service, 1199, kept on telling domestic consumers that they did not have any information about any scheduled or unscheduled loadshedding in any part of the city.

“We receive gas supply for total two hours in a day that too without enough pressure to cook or boil anything,” said a resident of the Malir Cantt area.

Another resident from Federal B Area complained that the pressure of gas was very low throughout the day.

The situation isn’t different in other city areas. A resident of Malir said that there’s no gas supply in the neighbourhood for almost a month.

“The trend started in first week of November when gas outages began. But it has turned worst now and there’s hardly any supply even for an hour,” he said.

In Gulshan-i-Iqbal, the residents are facing the same problem. An area resident said for last couple of weeks the gas had almost vanished and people were depending solely on LPG gas cylinders.

Meanwhile, Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Sheikh while talking to the media at the inauguration ceremony a turbine factory said that the gas crisis had intensified in the country, especially in the province.

He added that the provincial government would continue to raise voice regarding the gas crisis and hoped that the prime minister would take notice of the gas shortage.

“Sindh produces highest quantity of gas in the country, yet we are not getting gas as per our requirement,” he said, adding that the provincial government had registered its strong protest before the federal government.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2022