Gas shortage: Kitchens in Karachi go cold as SSGC favours fertiliser plants in winter

KARACHI: Millions of kitchens in Karachi have gone cold as utilities are supplying the gas meant for domestic consumers to fertiliser plants blatantly ignoring the plight of the people, who are unable to cook food or keep their homes warm as winter takes a turn for the worse.   

According to Geo News, a reduction in gas supply is seen in the last days of the week. In some areas, gas becomes unavailable before the 11 pm cut-off time set by the government while some do not even have any gas pressure in the afternoon.

Due to the increase in consumption in Balochistan because of the cold the scope of gas shortage in different areas of Karachi has increased. Gas supply has been affected in various parts of Saddar, Defence, Shah Faisal, Landhi, Gulshan and Scheme 33.

According to sources gas supply has been affected this year because the supply to fertilizer factories was not stopped this year. They added that the gas supply improves at the beginning of the week due to the supply closure to factories on Saturday and Sunday.

In October of last year, Caretaker Power Minister Muhammad Ali warned the citizens that gas would only be available for eight hours in the winter amid depleting natural gas reserves in the country.

“[Gas] loadshedding has occurred for the last few years. The loadshedding will also occur this year because we don’t have enough gas to supply it for 24 hours,” the interim minister shared during a press conference.

Back then the minister had expressed hope that the issue of gas shortage for industry in December would be resolved to a greater extent as the government finalised two liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes.