PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday sought Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s intervention on an ongoing CNG crisis in his province, warning that the shortage was setting the stage for \u201cwidespread agitiation\u201d across KP.<\/p>\n
The province has been affected by a compressed natural gas (CNG) crisis since April with several filling stations shut and millions of citizens struggling for affordable fuel. The situation has also negatively impacted the economic activity in the province.<\/p>\n
KP CM Afridi drew PM Shehbaz\u2019s attention to the matter in letter on Monday.<\/p>\n
The letter stated: \u201cI wish to draw your kind attention to the recent decision of the Petroleum Division regarding the curtailment of gas supply to the CNG sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reportedly due to liquified natural gas (LNG) supply disruptions and system constraints faced by the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we fully appreciate that SNGPL is operating under a constrained supply environment and must manage line pack pressures, the situation of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa merits distinct consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CM pointed out that KP had \u201ca substantial gas surplus\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs per available data, our province produces approximately 494mmcfd of natural gas while average consumption remains around 120mmcfd,\u201d the KP CM wrote.<\/p>\n
Moreover, he continued, \u201cThe CNG sector requirement in KP is approximately 36-40mmcfd of gas, which has been diverted to the fertiliser sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision of curtailing gas [supply] to the CNG sector in KP has set the stage for widespread agitation and is posing a serious threat to the law and order situation in the province,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
Citing Article 158 of the Constitution of Pakistan, he said, \u201cthe province where a natural gas wellhead is located has the first right to use the gas found in its territory\u201d.<\/p>\n
He further recalled a Peshawar High Court (PHC) ruling on January 15, 2022, stated \u201cthat the halting of CNG stations\u2019 operations under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is not justified, as it curtails lawful business guaranteed under Article 18 of the Constitution, affecting thousands of employees\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PHC has granted interim relief to the CNG Sector of KP,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n
The CM said that in view of \u201clarge-scale dependence of the transport sector\u201d on CNG and in order to avoid \u201ccostly fuel and \u2026 most likely law and order issues, it is extremely essential that 36-40mmcfd gas supply to the CNG sector is restored in KP\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday sought Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s intervention on an ongoing CNG crisis in his province, warning that the shortage was setting the stage for \u201cwidespread agitiation\u201d across KP. The province has been affected by a compressed natural gas (CNG) crisis since April with several filling stations shut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18196,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18194\/revisions\/18196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}