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”.
At a press conference last week and later during the provincial assembly session on Monday, Murad Ali Shah had said he would write to the top federal authorities including the prime minister on the constant denial of Sindh’s rights in terms of the provision of irrigation water and gas.
Speaking on a resolution at the assembly session, he had announced that he would send a requisition to the federal government for convening the next session of the Council of Common Interests on these issues.
However, in the letter, the chief minister only raised the issue of the provision of natural gas to its domestic, commercial and industrial consumers.
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, whereas, in rural areas SSGCL is still trying to complete the schemes funded by the Sindh government in 2012. The Council of Common Interests, in its last meeting on December 16, 2016, constituted a committee headed by the federal law minister to interpret constitutional provisions including Article 158. The committee held its meeting on March 3, 2017 and decided to submit a policy for consideration of CCI to implement Article 158. The provision of natural gas connections to politically-selected areas at the cost of gas producing province is a source of discontent and is also detrimental for national harmony. I, therefore, request you to please direct the ministry of petroleum and natural resources to implement Article 158 of the Constitution in letter and spirit and refrain from diverting natural gas from Sindh. Moreover, it is further requested to please remove the unilaterally imposed moratorium and direct SSGCL to provide gas connections to all domestic, industrial, and commercial sectors in Sindh. I earnestly look forward for a positive response in this matter of national importance please.”
