Transporters block Karachi's MA Jinnah Road in protest over CNG crisis
The portion of MA Jinnah Road from Gurumandir to Numaish Chowrangi was barricaded with rickshaws and taxis for at least four hours, after the owner of a CNG station ordered to close down his fuel station late night with people in long queues of vehicles waiting for their turn for hours.
Meantime, massive traffic jams were seen on other main roads including Shahra-e-Faisal owing to long rows of motorists at the CNG stations, as a large number of the CNG stations are closed in protest.
The CNG stations’ owners asserted that they cannot sell the fuel gas on the cut prices as sanctioned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The citizens lashed out at the politicians who raised the slogan of environment friendly to transfer the vehicles on CNG; now creating an artificial shortage of the gas, they have deprived the livelihood from a common man.
It should be mentioned here that on October 25, the apex court declared the formula to link the CNG price with oil prices as “illegal”. The court also directed OGRA to announce revised prices minus surcharges and cess.
The OGRA subsequently announced the reduced prices of the CNG. However, the CNG stations, in opposition to the newly announced prices, began unilaterally shutting down their fuel pumps as a sign of protest. Reacting to this, the government announced it would fine and even seal stations who shut down their stations unilaterally. –SAMAA
Source of News:
http://www.samaa.tv/newsdetail.aspx?ID=57553
City suffers yet another day without CNG
The gas stations remained shut even though the CNG associations had not officially given a strike call. To make matters worse, the “unofficial strike” is apparently for an indefinite period. No date has been announced as to when the closed gas stations will reopen.
Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Larkana and Mirpur Khas are among the affected regions of Sindh while in Punjab, people are facing severe difficulties in Sargodha and Bahawalpur.
CNG stations are shut in various areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
“Around 98 percent of the 298 CNG stations in Karachi stayed shut to protest against the unjust retail price of CNG,” a senior office-bearer of the central CNG association told.
“The majority of over 600 CNG stations in other parts of Sindh also remained closed.”
He refused to give a specific date as to when would the owners of the closed CNG stations end their strike.
Massive queues of vehicles were seen at a few company-operated gas stations in the city that remained open. They included a gas station near Askari-IV; two along Sharea Faisal, one near Drigh Road and the other close to the PAF Base Faisal and one in Malir Cantonment. A very few public transport vehicles were seen plying the roads.
“The CNG stations have been shut down to avoid further financial losses and in view of the unrecovered operational costs for running a gas station that had previously been allowed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority under its earlier CNG pricing mechanism,” said Suleman Sulemanjee, the chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s standing committee on CNG and former chief of the All Pakistan CNG Association’s Sindh zone.
“On receiving the latest gas bills from the Sui Southern Gas Company, the CNG station owners did their due accounting work and have come to the conclusion that the CNG retail sale price fixed at Rs54.16 per kg is causing a serious negative cash flow situation for them,” he added.
“With gas bills issued to them, the cost borne by the CNG station owners at Rs49.80 per kg and the Rs4 difference in the purchase and sale of gas has been too meagre an earning ratio, making it impossible to recover the due operational cost of running a CNG station.”
Sulemanjee maintained that the present situation has forced the CNG station owners to invest money from their own resources for running their businesses.
“These operational costs cover electricity bill charges, labour cost, maintenance, and the wear and tear cost of the machinery installed at the CNG filling stations. At such an unreasonable cost, the CNG station owners have been forced to sell gas at a loss of Rs15 or Rs16 per kg with no prospect of earning any reasonable margin of profit as allowed under the law and the constitution.” He said the closed CNG stations would reopen when Ogra announced a reasonable CNG retail price.
Source of News:
http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=77182
PPP MPA Sardar Muhammad Kichi dies of heart attack
Sardar Muhammad Khan Khichi son of Mr Allah Yar Khan Khichi was born on September 1, 1958 in Lahore.
He was elected as Member, Provincial Assembly of the Punjab in general elections 2008 and served as Chairman, Standing Committee on Industries.
Source of News:
http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=77174
Van cylinder blast kills seven, injures four
LAHORE: Seven persons were killed and four others injured when a gas
cylinder exploded in a passenger van on the Manga Mandi-Multan Road near
Lahore on Monday.
According to Rescue 1122 and local police sources, the van was coming to Lahore from Sahiwal with at least 11 passengers.As it ran out of CNG near Manga Mandi, the conductor opened an additional LPG cylinder’s knob to maintain the fuel supply but a huge fire erupted, which burnt seven passengers alive including three children and two women.
Four others were also injured while the driver managed to escape.
According to local police, the bodies had been burnt beyond identification. The vehicle was impounded and the bodies were shifted to Jinnah Hospital, they added.
Police said four persons were treated at a local hospital while one seriously injured person was referred to Jinnah Hospital.
Source of News:
http://www.aaj.tv/2012/11/van-cylinder-blast-kills-seven-injures-four/
Robbers kill man in Lahore
Police said that Arshad and his brother ran a medical store in Small Industry Cooperative Housing Society. The police said that both the brothers put up resistance when armed robbers attempted to loot cash.
They said that the robbers opened fire and managed to flee; leaving Arshad dead and his brother Shahzad injured who was later shifted to General Hospital for treatment.
The police shifted the body to a morgue and registered a case.
Source of News:
http://www.geo.tv/GeoDetail.aspx?ID=77168
