Electricity, gas shortage grips Pakistan as winter approaches

KHYBER: Gas shortage is a significant issue that grips Pakistan every year in winter due to increased prices of wood and coal as well as the shortage. Moreover, compared to last year, wood and coal prices have doubled, media reports said.

According to numerous media reports, gas is no longer available in a number of cities in Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

As a result of the gas load shedding, residents in Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad, Multan, Peshawar, and Rawalpindi are concerned, and demand for LPG and firewood has also surged.

Despite doubling prices of Wood and coal, the plan to supply LPG to domestic consumers to meet their fuel needs is also ineffective.

According to local media, Sindh produces about 62 per cent of gas in the country and in return gets only 38 per cent of gas for Sindh.

On the other hand, gas production in Punjab is only 3 per cent but Punjab gets 52 per cent of gas.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, gas production is 15 per cent and its consumption is only 7 per cent, in Balochistan, gas production is 12 per cent and consumption is only 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, civilians in Gharibabad in Qalat are also suffering from the problems of electricity and gas for a long time; load shedding, tripping, low voltage, and irregular supply of Sui gas field, and that too for a very short time.

In November, the people complained to the authorities but the situation did not change.

So, the frustrated people were forced to protest, reported Pak vernacular media, Intekhab Daily.

They came out on the roads and women and children closed the national highway.

The traffic flow on the Karachi-Quetta was badly disrupted.

A transformer was burnt in Gharibabad last month and since then they are suffering from electricity problems because the transformer is neither repaired nor replaced so far, reported the vernacular media.