ISLAMABAD: Not ready to buy the reason given by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) for the low gas pressure in the city, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the company to submit its distribution plan as well as the details about the pressure at which the gas enters and exits at its three main sales metering stations for the Islamabad territory.

As Justice Riaz Ahmed Khan of the IHC resumed hearing in the case regarding weekly gas holidays for CNG stations, counsel for more than 90 CNG stations, Makhdoom Ali Khan, told the court that they were not responsible for the low pressure of natural gas being witnessed by the domestic consumers in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

He alleged that SNGPL artificially created shortage of the gas in the city by maintaining low pressure in its system and blamed the CNG sector for the shortage.

He said that out of total 215 mmcf allocated for Islamabad city, CNG stations of Islamabad consumed 15 mmcf of gas adding that only 7 per cent of the total utilised by the CNG sector could not be blamed for collapse of the system.

At this the judge directed the SNGPL counsel to submit the details of upstream (from the gas well) and downstream (towards the consumer end) pressures at sales metering stations of Nogazi, Ranyal and Rawat on December 22, the next date of hearing.

He also adjourned the hearing of the matter regarding vacation of its stay order against gas holidays till December 22.

The court, however, on request of the petitioners' counsel consented to hear all the petitions seeking permanent ban on weekly gas loadshedding for CNG stations on the same day.

Asim Hafeez, SNGPL's counsel, requested the court for clarification of its stay order to enable them implement the load management plan in the capital.

The court on November 18 had issued the stay order. However, CNG stations were interpreting the order in their favour as it restrained SNGPL from closing CNG stations on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

The interpretation of SNGPL was quite different; its counsel claimed that the court did not restrain them from closing CNG stations three days in a week under gas load management plan.

Khurram Hashmi, counsel for the CNG stations told Dawn that the Sindh High Court had also struck down the notification regarding gas holidays for CNG stations in different cities of the province.

He said Sui Southern Gas Pipelines (SSGPL) after negotiations with CNG association reduced the three-day holiday to one-and-a-half day in Karachi and other cities of Sindh adding that gas load management was not being observed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan at all.

“There is sufficient quantity of gas available for the federal capital as the pressure of gas wells is 450 pound per square inch (PSI) but when it comes into SNGPL system its pressure dramatically dropped to 45 PSI,” he said.