Government backtracked on agreement with APCNGA

The government has refused to keep CNG price 40 percent lower than petrol and also declined to reduce CNG loadshedding from three days to two and half days in Punjab, said Ghiyas Abdullh Paracha, Chairman Supreme Council of All Pakistan CNG Stations Association here on Thursday.
He said that the government has recently agreed with the APCNGA that CNG prices would be 40 percent less than petrol prices, but Secretary Petroleum Thursday refused to issue a notification in this regard. Paracha said that the government has forced the owners of CNG stations to take to the roads and streets, adding that APCNGA would decide future line of action today (Friday) in its Central Executive Committee meeting.
The Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filling stations across the Potohar region were closed in accordance with the new gas load-management plan for two and a half days, which created serious transport problems for the commuters. According to gas load-management plan the CNG stations will remain closed in the Potohar region, which includes Attock, Jhelum, Islamabad and Rawalpindi districts.
According to CNG Association, the government has provided new load-management plan and supply of CNG to filling stations in Potohar and Bahawalpur has been suspended from 6 AM on Thursday. Before gas suspension to filling stations, long queues of vehicles were seen at the gas stations while CNG was provided to customers beyond the allowed timings. Gas supply will be resumed at 3 PM on Saturday.
People travelling between the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad faced serve shortage of transportation as majority of the public service vans, suzukis and taxis are running on CNG. Muhammad Bashir Khan a government employee at Pakistan Secretariat said that the government is committed to crushing the poor people like him, as in the absence of public transport they have to arrive at workplaces by taxis, which costs almost 10 times more as compared to normal van fare. He said that in normal days taxis charged Rs 150 for reaching secretariat but when there is gas loadshedding its owner demand Rs 300, adding that a common employee can not afford such a huge amount.