The residents of twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are facing acute shortage of gas and office goers and children are forced to go without having breakfast. The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Managing Director SNGPL have failed to realise the difficulties of the common man to address the issue which is going on for the last over four years particularly during the winter months.
According to details, there is no gas in areas which are housed by the middle class or low middle class while full pressure is available in posh sectors of Islamabad and cantonment areas of Rawalpindi city. Majority of sectors in Islamabad including G-6, G-7, G-11, I-9 and I-10 and Rawalpindi localities including Khayban-e-Sir Syed, Bangash colony, Sadiqabad, Amarpura, Waris Khan, Glass factory, Muslim Town, Shakriyal, Pir Wadhai, Dhoke Kala Khan and other such middle class localities have no gas from 6am to 11pm as against government's announcement that gas would not be available from 10pm to 6am.
The gas problem is not for domestic consumers but the hotels are also faced with the same difficulties. They use LNG or fuel wood to meet the demands of the consumers as most of the domestic consumers also turn to the hotels to buy food items.
Citizens of twin cities Raja Anees, Raja Ubaid, Raja Nasir, Ammad Abbasi and others have demanded from Minister of CADD Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and the Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to either resolve their problems or quit if they cannot resolve the problems of the citizens. They questioned that if there is shortage of gas, why there is full pressure in posh localities of the two cities. They said these double standards should come to an end and first the gas supply in Ministers colony and guest houses of the provincial governments must be stopped so that there is realisation to the rulers about the difficulties of the poor masses.