KOHAT: The people of Kohat are braving excessive electric loadshedding and low gas pressure despite the fact that it is rich in oil and gas.

Talking to reporters, MPA Daud Shah said that Kohat district produced Rs400 billion worth of oil and gas annually, but a major part of its population was without the gas facility, and the rest of people were subjected to inhuman outages and low pressure.

Similarly, he said there was no oil refinery or gas company in the district, and the government owed it billions in royalties. He regretted that local educated youth remained unemployed as the exploration companies preferred outsiders. “The locals were accommodated only as watchmen,” he added.

The MPA said situation was worse in the rural areas where women still cooked food using fuel wood.

Chairman Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CNG Association Haji Sajid said Kohat only needed two per cent of the total gas produced locally. He accused the staff of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited of intentionally keeping the pressure low at the Dhodha national distribution point.

Farhan Bangash, a resident of Hangu highway, regretted that their children usually went to school without breakfast as they suffered prolonged gas outages. “Similarly, the excessive electric supply suspensions have also made our lives a hell.”

TWO DIE ON ROAD: Two persons were killed and as many injured in a road accident on Hnagu highway in Muhammdzai area here on Monday.

Rescue 1122 spokesman Jawad Afridi said that they received an emergency call from the control room about a car having skidded off the road.

He said that the rescuers shifted all the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital after first aid, where doctors declared two of them dead.

The deceased were identified as Abdul Samad and Mohammad Farad, while the injured included Abdur Rehman and Hizar Hayat.

All of them belonged to Mohallah Sangerh of the Hangu district.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2025