• Lawmakers ask federal govt to give the province its due share
• Say the Constitution guarantees the region where gas is produced should have priority in supply

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Friday echoed with the lawmakers’ concerns and protests over the persistent shortage of natural gas across the province and urged the federal government to give Sindh its due share of the natural resource.

Despite the importance of the issue, however, many lawmakers did not turn up as the thinly-attended house unanimously adopted a substantive motion after the adjournment motion presented by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Heer Soho, which called for a discussion on the increasing gas loadshedding in the province.

Speaking on her motion, Ms Soho said that Sindh generated 61 per cent of indigenous gas, yet there was its shortage in the province.

She said that the gas supply was nowadays restored at 6am for hardly two hours, compelling students to go to school without breakfast.

“Why are we not being given the gas according to our needs?” she asked, adding that the Constitution also guaranteed that the province where gas is produced should have priority in supply.

Supporting the adjournment motion, Jamaat-i-Islami member Muhammad Farooq also said that the people of the region where the gas is produced have the first right.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan-P (MQM-P) member Rashid Khan said that the people of Sindh were fed up with gas load-shedding. “It is oppression and abuse against the people,” he said and demanded that Sindh should be given gas first and then the rest of the country should use it.

He said that gas charges had been increased by the government, but gas was not available.

The MQM MPA said that the famous bangle industry in Hyderabad had closed due to the non-availability of gas, affecting over 500,000 people associated with this business.

He urged the Sindh CM to talk to the prime minister on the issue.

MQM-P’s Aamir Siddiqui said that the chief minister should fight the case of gas loadshedding in the CCI meeting.

Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said that gas loadshedding was also a continuation of the injustices that were being done to the province.

He said that federal government was responsible to follow the Constitution that guaranteed the province’s rights. Earlier, there was gas in the cities and people used to burn wood in the villages, but now people in the cities were also forced to use wood for cooking, he added.

He said that electricity loadshedding was also done for 16 to 17 hours in the province.

The minister said that it was the responsibility of the gas companies to improve their infrastructure. He said that the adjournment motion would be passed and sent it to the federation.

Mr Memon also asked the MQM-P members to take up the issue with the federal government as they were a coalition partner.

Earlier, Speaker Awais Qadir Shah began the proceedings at 10am to find only 10 lawmakers on their seats in the house. The Question Hour was not held as none of the lawmakers who had submitted their written questions turned up.

A dismayed speaker proceeded with the call attention notices as the number of members finally rose to 44 in a 168-member house.

In his call attention notice, MQM-P’s Shariq Jamal pointed out that the streets were filthy and littered with garbage in parts of his constituency PS-90.

He said that neither the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board nor any local government authority took responsibility to dispose of garbage in Malir Saudabad, Khorkhrapar and adjoining localities.

In response, Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon said that the complaint of the MQM-P member might be correct.

He said that the provincial government was spending millions of rupees on the garbage disposal and now the garbage was being collected and was shifted to landfill sites.

The minister said that the provincial government was giving Rs1.2 million to each union council so that the problems of the areas would be reduced.

Sabir Qaimkhani pointed out that ministers were not there and said that if they were busy, parliamentary secretaries should have been in the house to respond to the lawmakers queries.

Sharjeel Memon said that the parliamentary secretaries should be bound to attend the house.

Later, the house was adjourned to Monday.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2025