Sindh CM writes to PM

While banned in Sindh, how gas is being supplied in Punjab

KARACHI: The Sindh chief minister wrote a letter to the prime minister on Tuesday asking him to implement Article-158 of the Constitution in letter and spirit by preventing the diversion of natural gas from Sindh to “politically-selected areas”.

Copies of the letter were sent to the federal petroleum and natural resources minister and the chief ministers Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The letter read, “I am writing with reference to widely reported news related to the provision of 97 natural gas projects worth more than Rs37 billion, mostly located in Punjab, by relaxing moratorium on expansion of such schemes. The expansion of new gas network in Punjab, which produces only three percent of gas but consumes over 42 percent of the total gas produced in the country, is in complete disregard of Article 158 of the Constitution which accords priority to the province where well head is situated.

"Currently, the Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd is not entertaining any request for provision of gas to new consumers - both in urban and rural areas of Sindh citing moratorium imposed by the federal government. The company has even declined supply of gas to Khairpur Special Economic Zone which is Pakistan’s first industrial park with SEZ status under SEZ Act 2012. Similarly, it has also refused to supply gas to nine small industrial estates in different parts of Sindh province for which the government has already paid to SSGC. "In the urban centres of Sindh, thousands of applications for domestic connections are pending.