KARACHI CHRONICLE: Karachi's feudal lords

Out of the blue, Sui Southern Gas Company on Monday 28 November announced a schedule of gas loadshedding at CNG stations in view of increased demand. So was this increased demand something that occurred overnight that they had to take lightening fast emergency measures without prior notice to the consumers.
The loadshedding began the next day with a thumping 48-hour lasting from 11pm (November 29) to 11pm (December 1). Nobody had time to prepare or plan how they would manage their affairs during gas loadshedding. The whole city of an estimated 18 million souls was thrown out of kilter. Hours before the scheduled closures on the first day, CNG stations ran out of supply. In many places the supply had depleted by twelve noon.
A panic-like situation prevailed as people put everything else on hold as they went from one CNG station to the next in hope of getting enough gas to last them through the dreaded 48-hour loadshedding. Even half an hour before the deadline there were CNG stations where vehicles were cueued in two or three lines at least a hundred feet long, blocking roads, and service lanes near gas stations.
The gas company ought to have learnt from the power company, the KESC, that loadshedding is not a workable solution if the purpose is conservation of energy. People find ways and means to get round short supply. In the case of power, they switched to gas as an alternative source. Air conditioners and generators were operated on gas increasing the demand. High petrol prices led to switch to CNG increasing yet more gas consumption.
As far as transports is concerned vehicles run on CNG will simply increase the number of storage tanks. Cars have already lost boot space because of the single storage tank, now they will lose the back passenger space, but what ever they do they will, simply will continue to use CNG until an alternate energy source, such as solar panels become easily available. Buses run of CNG already have three or four extra gas tanks, private vehicles will soon follow this example if gas loadshedding becomes a regular practice.
Means of transport is not a luxury. In Karachi no child, woman or man can get anything done in the business of living if there is no vehicle to take them to school, the factory, the hospital, the market, the wedding, the funeral etc. Nothing in the sprawling city is within walking distance. You might argue that the markets are there in every block. That is true, but if you want a bargain, if you cannot afford the high prices in the commercial centres you head for the low-cost markets such as the Sunday bazaar. There are also schools within easy reach, you may say, but are they the kind most people would send their children to? As for hospitals, people not only have to come from all parts of the city to the three major hospitals, but often people come from Hyderabad and Thatta come to avail Karachi's medical facility. So how can the gas company justify CNG loadshedding.
The KESC knows loadshedding does not solve problems, it creates them, such as riots and arson and sabotage of utility installations. This is something the gas company ought to have learnt from their fellow suppliers of energy. But the only thing they seem to have learnt is to ape the arrogance of the KESC. The real culprits of power theft are state-owned institutions but the citizen consumer is victimised. The same is the case of the unpaid consumption of gas. The public pay not only the gas bill every month but now also has to be punished for the sins of others.
I do not think anyone in the gas company is so dumb as to believe loadshedding is a solution. My contention is that, like the KECS loadshedding, this is a deliberate act designed to torment, harass and insult the citizens of Karachi. The management of public utilities, power, gas and water, behave as if they were Karachi's feudal lords. We, the citizens, are lesser mortals who must pay whether our feudal lords supply or hold back the supply.
Unfortunately, Karachiites by and large are beginning to act as if they really were surfs and slaves of the utilities. The riots and demonstrations staged in protest for power or water shortage is usually the work of the poorest of the poor. Show me one industrialist, housewife, teacher or student or doctor who believes in demonstrations as a way of bringing their plight to the notice of the utility management. They know very well that these are mere sterile shows. By and large the estimated 18 million citizens simply put up with the harassment and insult meted out by the utility management. They mumble helplessly to each other but do nothing effective to get their rights. It seems as if they think they do not have rights. They continue to pay the power bill despite massive loadshedding. They continue to pay the water tax despite having to purchase water from the tanker water supplier, in short they have acknowledged the feudal hold of utility management on their lives. I ought to have said "we" and "our" instead of "they" and "their" because I am just as subjugated as the rest of my fellow citizens.