CNG sector on the verge of collapse: speakers

LAHORE - The CNG sector, once launched as environment-friendly fuel with billions of rupees, is now on the verge of collapse due to the wrong and short-term planning of the policymakers.
PPP central leader Abdul Qadir Shaheen, PML-N MPAs Zaeem Qadri and Mehr Ishtiaq, and Chairman APCA Punjab Region Captain (r) Shujjah Anwar expressed these views at The Nation Forum held in Hameed Nizami Hall here on Thursday. Abdul Qadir Shaheen said poor policies of former ruling party headed by Pervez Musharaff created severe energy crisis in the country as they not only issued licenses of CNG stations in abundance to their blue-eyed but also overlooked the policy in this regard. According to rules, any fuel station or CNG station must be constructed with a distance of not less than 25 to 30 miles on highways and also with a reasonable distance in the urban areas, he added.
He said rapid increase in the growth of corrupt mafias headed by some politicians, bureaucrats and investors was another factor behind such energy crisis, adding members of such mafias were involved in theft of electricity and gas.
According to statistics, he said, the country still possess huge gas reservoirs which are sufficient even for two hundred years but due to lack of planning we failed to take initiatives in this regard. If our country possesses such a huge volume of gas then it must be supplied to the consumers on cheap rates, he added.
Earlier, Zaem Qadri said such crisis always led to worsen the economic condition of the country. He said energy crisis, particularly the shortage of gas, was not a new phenomenon in the country. The authorities concerned ignored balance in demand and supply during previous ten years which not only caused sever crisis of gas but also affected the domestic consumer besides damaging other sectors in the country. He stressed that theft of gas must be checked by disconnecting illegal commercial as well as domestic connections.
He said Senator Waqar and Iqbal Z Ahmed, the blue-eyed of Pervez Musharaf, were responsible for such crisis because Musharaff issued licenses to them for the import of LPG in the country and now both of them wanted to destroy the CNG sector by replacing it with LPG for their personal benefits. He demanded the prime minister to unearth such fraud of gas by removing Senator Waqar from the cabinet besides reviewing policy regarding gas. He also demanded him to write off the loans of rickshaw drivers besides giving relief in the CNG sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Mehr Ishtiaq said the CNG sector was consuming only 5 per cent gas while not less than 12 per cent of gas was being stolen which is criminal negligence by the government that must check theft of gas by interlinking the policy. He said initially the government declared the CNG sector an industry and later started planning to close it by taking plea of gas shortage. He said in case government closes the sector it would have to purchase petrol from other countries by spending huge amount.
He said such circumstances would cause price-hike, adding due to lack of planning the government issued as many as 600 CNG licenses while it had capacity of 300 CNG stations according to demand and supply of gas. He also suggested the government to use coal instead of using gas and petrol for electricity production. He also suggested the government should constitute policies for minimum 10 years in order to stabilise economy of the country.
Captain (r) Shujjah Anwar said the CNG sector was introduced and promoted by President Asif Ali Zardari when he was minister for environment declaring it an environment-friendly fuel and such policy helped save about 175 million dollars every year. He said when not less than Rs 200 billions were invested in CNG sector, the government started discouraging such sector by raising gas tariff and declaring shortage of gas in the country. Instead of giving relief, the government was creating problems for the sector. He said the government did not invite them for dialogues in this regard and discouraging CNG sector deliberately, it wanted to promote LPG in the country just to oblige their blue-eyed.
Sayed Wali Shah, President of Rickshaw Drivers Association, also spoke on the occasion and said the government promoted the CNG sector initially declaring it as an environment-friendly fuel by encouraging the manufactures of CNG rickshaws. But later they planned to restrict them by taking plea of shortage of gas due to their own poor policies in this regard, which marred the only source of income of the rickshaw drivers, he added. He suggested the government to ban manufacturing of CNG rickshaws owing to shortage of gas in the country. The rickshaws given by the banks were manufactured by substandard material, he concluded.