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ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday issued notices to the owners of CNG filling stations on a petition filed by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) seeking vacation of stay order against three-day a week closure of the filling stations.
IHC Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan on November 18, 22 and 24 while hearing petitions of more than 90 CNG station owners suspended the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines notification regarding weekly gas load shedding for the CNG stations.
Justice Khan after hearing the preliminary arguments of the SNGPL counsel Asim Hafeez fixed December 8 as the next date of hearing.
The counsel contended before the court that the continuous supply of gas to the CNG stations resulted in low gas pressure to the domestic consumers as the heavy equipment installed at CNG stations sucked the gas of its nearby areas and left the empty pipelines for the domestic consumers.
SNGPL also submitted its written reply and 'Gas Allocation and Load Management Policy 2005' that placed the domestic consumers first on the priority list while the CNG sector was on the fourth.
According to the policy, the domestic consumers and commercial sector are the first priority, fertiliser and industrial sectors are the second, Independent Power Producers (IPPs), Wapda and KESC power plants are the third priority. CNG and industrial sectors are the fourth priority while captive power and cement sectors are fifth and sixth priorities respectively.
As far as the load management plan is concerned, the percentage of gas usage for domestic sector is 15.6, commercial sector 2.4, fertiliser sector 5.2, industrial sector 19.4, Wapda, KESC and power plants 32.5, cement plants 1.2, captive power plants 4.2 and CNG sector uses just 0.5 per cent, the policy said.
