SHEIKHUPURA - Enraged Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited’s employees took out a protest rally as a factory’s staffers thrashed its recovery officials with cubs and pelted stone on them besides resorting to aerial firing for taking action against alleged gas theft here on Friday, as per regional manager of the SNGPL.
After several complaints of gas theft in a board mills which is run by Rizwan, son of former inspector general Major (r) Ziaul Hasan, the recovery team reached Kala Shah Kaku in the limit of Ferozewala police for the recovery of outstanding dues, said Hanif Ramy, the official. The team consisted of Engineer Hafiz Imran, Aqeel, Waqar Butt, Mazhar, Abbas, Idrees along with the Ferozewala police.
When they reached there, the staffers deployed at the factory’s main gate did not allow the officials to check the “illegal” gas connection, said Ramy.
He added that the mills’ owners had been steeling gas for the last many years and caused a huge loss of more than Rs800 million to the government exchequer.
He said when the team tried to check the meter reading, the staffers attacked them while the policemen disappeared from site.
The attackers also snatched the gas meter and other instruments from the SNGPL team, he said.
He pointed out that whenever they visited the factory, the administration did not allow them to inspect the connection nor did they pay a single penny as gas dues.
The protesters threatened to go on strike if no strict action was taken against the factory owner and they were not provided protection.
The protesters were chanting slogans against the factory owners. When contacted, the Ferozewala police did not commented on the incident.
However, one of the policemen, on condition of anonymity said, “The factory owner is our father.
So how can we take action against him?”