CNG Stations across the Pothohar region remained closed on Friday as per government's gas management plan, which caused severe problems for the commuters as well as motorists running their vehicles on CNG. According to the gas load management plan, all the CNG stations in Pothohar region to remain closed on Friday and Saturday.
Long queues of cars and other vehicles were seen during late hours of Thursday at CNG stations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. According to a survey carried out by Business Recorder, the closure of CNG stations on Friday and Saturday made it difficult to find public transport for students, working women and other public and private employees as taxi and rickshaw owners take full advantage of the situation by over charging. Talking to this scribe people expressed anger at the government's decision to close CNG stations two days a week.
Justifying the high fares of taxi and rickshaw drivers pointed out that during the two days no CNG was available and they were compelled to use petrol, which is quite expensive. Gas load-management schedule and strike of CNG Stations' Association were forcing motorists as well as the common man to bear an extra financial burden, Arif Khan a government employee working at Pak-Secretariat said.
The consumers condemning the policies of the government protested against the shortage of gas while queuing up to get fuel from a few government CNG filling stations in the twin cities that remained open on Friday. They maintained that Pakistan was in the grip of a crisis since 2005; however subsequent to the formation of PPP led government the crisis has escalated.
Arsalan Khan a taxi driver queued up at a government run petrol pump/CNG station said that taxi drivers were finding it very difficult to earn money as they had to spend hours at CNG stations to refuel their vehicles. A driver Ramzan complained about rising costs but added that with shortages and higher costs he was hard pressed to feed his family. Private vehicle owners and domestic consumers also accused the rulers of being oblivious to the needs of the common man.
In this regard, office-bearer of CNG Association of Pakistan Captain Shujjah (Retd) said that there were 697 CNG station in Potohar region and they were directed to remain closed two days a week as per government's gas load-management plan. Abid Yaseen a petrol pump/CNG station owner said that unemployment and corruption in the government sector were on the rise since 2006, but instead of controlling corruption and making efforts to reduce unemployment the government was trying to meet the financial losses by increasing prices of different essential items. "If everyone starts converting their vehicles to petrol from CNG this will increase the country's import bill and question the efficacy of the government's gas management policy in the long-term," he said.
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