The proposal is on the cards that the government would extend the one day CNG shutdown for another two months, and a formal announcement in this regard is expected at the Energy Conference to be held on Tuesday.

Talking to Dawn the association chairman, Ghayas Paracha, said cuts were made to supply gas to the industries and power producers but the government had not fulfilled any of the promises it made regarding improvement in electricity supply.

“The only thing achieved from the one day weekly off for CNG is additional trouble for commuters as public transport sharply declines due to unavailability of gas,” he said, adding that this problem was severe for women commuters and low income employees.

“The women commuters cannot take lift from passing cars while the low income employees cannot afford taxis when limited numbers of wagons are on roads,” he added.

The CNG Association in its recent meeting has decided to raise the issue of ending the one day CNG closure in Punjab only.

Interestingly the high courts of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have disallowed the CNG closure in their respective jurisdictions on the ground that the province had the first right on its natural resources.

Since, Punjab is not a major gas producing area around 1,800 CNG stations in the province have to face the weekly shutdown.

The original idea of gas curtailment to the CNG sector was to save 25 mmcfd for the SNGPL and 10 mmcfd by SSGC and provide it to industries and the power producers.

However after exemption of three provinces from the shutdown, the net saving of gas from Punjab alone is not significant to support any other sector.

Mr Paracha said there were other better options to save electricity.

“There are 2,500 CNG stations in the country and if they are allowed to convert to captive generation the government can very easily save up to 200 mw by completely cutting off electricity supply to CNG stations,” he added.