Karachi industrialists protest against gas shortage

KARACHI: The members of Karachi Industrial Forum (KIF), the representative body of all the industrial estates of Karachi, held talks with the management of the Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd (SSGC) over the current demand-supply situation of natural gas.

During the meeting held at the SSGC Head Office, the industrialists requested to revoke their decision to enforce the fifty per cent curtailment of gas to the captive power units. The SSGC management agreed to the request, since the new 12” dia x 46-km pipeline project from Rehman Gas Field has now been commissioned.

The industrialists also asked the SSGC to withdraw notifications issued to the industrial units consuming more gas than their allocations. The SSGC management explained to the industrialists that such violations of the Gas Sales Agreement (GSA) would create shortages of gas for other consumers especially the domestic sector. On insistence of the representatives of the industrial bodies, SSGC agreed to review the violations on a case by case basis, but warned that this will increase shortage in domestic supplies.

Leading industrialists including Siraj Teli, Zubair Motiwala and Jawed Balwani participated in the talks with the SSGC management that comprised of, among others, Mohammad Wasim, Acting MD, Saeed Larik, SGM (Distribution) and Brigadier (retd) Mohammad Abuzar, DG (Security Services).

The KIF includes industrial associations of the city including Landhi Association of Trade and Industry (LATI), Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry (BQATI), North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI), Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI), Federal B Area Association of Trade and Industry (FBATI) and SITE Association of Trade and Industry (SAI).

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has announced to support the strike call of the business community over the persisting crisis of natural gas affecting the industrial and business activities in Karachi. The Sindh Energy minister Imtiaz Sheikh on Monday contacted the leaders of Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and assured them that the government of Sindh would support their strike call.

Imtiaz Sheikh said that federal government was playing politics on the issue of gas as its unwise policies had damaged the country’s economy and foreign exchange reserves. Talking to leaders of business community Siraj Qasim Telli, Javed Balwani and Zubair Motiwala, the minister said that the act of the federal government was unconstitutional and informed them that CM Sindh wrote many letters to the prime minister and asked him to resolve the gas crisis. Shaikh said the prime minister conceded to the chief minister that the natural gas crisis existed in the country and assured that the crisis would soon be resolved. He said the chief minister had also raised the gas shortages in the Council of Common Interests but Islamabad ignored it.

The provincial minister said the Sindh government would support the business community's strike call while assuring them of full cooperation. Shaikh said the industrial, domestic and transporters sectors are worst effected due to gas crisis. Later the Sindh minister also contacted the secretary petroleum and MD of Sui Southern Gas company and asked them to resolve the crisis.