Living without gas

While SAPM Nadeem Babar had pledged that people would not suffer this winter because of any shortage of gas or any reduction in pressure, both problems have occurred in all four provinces. People in Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan say they are forced to either burn wood to meet basic cooking needs, as not even stoves can be lit, or else depend on food bought from outside the home. At the same time, even commercial outlets such as cheap street cafes and restaurants are now complaining they have no gas to cook food adequately. Families say there is an immense amount of suffering, while the prices of cylinders have also been increased, putting them outside the reach of households, which are already struggling to survive due to the impact of the pandemic.

The prediction of a serious gas shortage in the first two weeks of January had been made earlier by Geo News journalists after Pakistan, because of its late tender for LNG gas, failed to procure any at all and was forced to turn down the two offers made because of their extremely high prices. This means that in the coldest months of the year, the terminals are empty, and people are attempting to survive without a vital commodity. Already the government has cut off gas supply to electric companies, IPPs and other industrial concerns, creating immense problems. Senior industrialists, some of whom have taken up the matter at the presidential level, say that in Sindh they were promised an uninterrupted gas supply, so that Pakistan's textile sector could attempt to match that of Bangladesh, where cotton is cheaper and it is more possible for the country to produce cotton garments at competitive rates in international markets. Industrialists say that without gas, they now have no hope whatsoever of competing with the other nations as far as textiles goes. The same is true of other industrial concerns. The government's promises have proved to be inaccurate and the pledge that people would not suffer has been disowned by citizens across the country.

This is a problem that has occurred before. The PTI government had assured the country it would not be repeated this year. This year, with temperatures reaching new lows and falling even in Karachi, the question of maintaining gas pressure has also become more extreme. And at any rate, there is simply not enough gas available in the country to meet needs, forcing a dependence on far more expensive furnace oil to keep essential businesses and energy plants running.