The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday questioned the role of Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in implementing gas loadshedding by directly issuing notification. The court also summoned member gas of Ogra on Wednesday (today) along with complete record of gas loadshedding.
The court put a question mark on the decisions of the ECC when counsel for Sui Northern Gas Pipeline (SNGPL) told the court that CNG loadshedding was being carried out on the directions of ECC in all the provinces. He, however, said province of Khyber Pakhtunkhawa was exempted from gas loadshedding as per article 158 of the Constitution.
He further said that the gas loadshedding was also being carried out in other sectors. He further told the court that fertiliser sector was provided gas for 8 months in a year, while gas supply to 10 out of fifteen Independent Power Producers (IPPs) was permanently suspended, and cement sector was also facing gas loadshedding. On a court query, Ogra's counsel said the authority had no role in implementing any policy. Its job was only to issue licenses, he added. The court wondered over the poor knowledge of the counsel and said, "You may not aware of Ogra laws.'
The petitioner All Pakistan Compressed Natural Gas Association (APCNGA) through its central chairman Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha submitted that the government had no jurisdiction to implement the loadshedding plan. He said not only public but families belonged to CNG business were facing great difficulties and financial loss. He asked the court to set aside three-day weekly loadshedding of CNG by declaring it unconstitutional.