LAHORE, June 7: The closure of CNG stations virtually entered its fourth day on Thursday, creating huge problems for city dwellers and they had to shift to highly expensive petrol to keep their vehicles on the road.

A few of the stations were open, but exceptionally long queues made it a “time consuming” job to get gas from them, affecting everyone’s schedule and patients. To people’s dismay, All Pakistan CNG Association vowed to continue till the “cancellation of proposed cess and the rollback of price rise decision.”

It conceded that some of the stations were operating, but disowned them saying: “They are a very minute minority and the strike is almost complete in three provinces – Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The cess would burden people’s pockets by Rs5,000 to Rs10,000 per month and hit the business.”

“It takes anywhere between one hour and 90 minutes to get gas,” says a vehicle owner at a gas station in Cantt area. One can imagine the kind of time waste where people are still lucky to get gas. Where they are not, it is a huge money waste. “But, even then, I am for this strike for economic reasons. If the consumers put up with it, they can be saved from long-term loss that additional tax would bring them,” he claimed. “This is typical official flip-flop,” says another city dweller. No one really knows what the government wants, except for fleecing people on every excuse. After all it was government policy that established the CNG industry. Now, every three months, the industry is in one or other kind of crisis, and so are the people, he says.

“Why cannot government take a long-term perspective on the industry, people’s requirements and its own income and strike a balance among all three that sustains for next few years”?