A new schedule has been issued by Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) for gas consumers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the winter months from December to February.
Gas will now be supplied intermittently in three daily time slots: from 5:30am to 8:30am, from 11:30am to 1:30pm, and from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
SNGPL also warned that gas is expensive and urged consumers to use it according to their needs.
Gas load-shedding has become a major political and social concern in recent years, with household supply repeatedly highlighted as a key issue.
Gas is supplied through pipelines to households, which receive 50 per cent of available supplies, followed by the fertiliser sector, independent power plants, and the industrial and CNG sectors.
On Friday, lawmakers raised concerns over unannounced electricity and gas load-shedding across the country as procedural disputes and protests delayed the proceedings of the upper house. The Senate session was convened under the chairmanship of Shahadat Awan.
Senator Manzoor Kakar slammed the government over persistent power and gas outages, asserting that while sufficient electricity and gas supplies were available, the government still failed to deliver relief to the masses.
He blamed the crisis on rampant electricity theft, lamenting that the cost of these losses was being passed onto the public. “Gas comes from Balochistan, yet the people of the province do not receive it. Travelling from Balochistan to Karachi or Islamabad costs Rs70-80 thousand in fares, which ordinary people cannot afford.”
