News
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Gas shortage paralyses country* Police use tear gas, sticks on crowds protesting against shortage, price hikes
* Demand and supply gap increasing due to cold weather
ISLAMABAD: Protesters clashed with police and major cities were paralysed as thousands of people demonstrated across the country on Monday over severe gas shortages and price hikes.
Public transport was halted in the capital Islamabad, where police used tear gas and sticks on a crowd of more than 1,000 people. An angry mob also set ablaze a police van near Faizabad interchange. The protesters also manhandled the van driver, who was admitted to the PIMS hospital.
The protesters carrying sticks burned tyres and chanted, “Down with government, stop suffocating the poor”, at the spot where a rally was held last month in which demonstrators set fire to armoured police vehicles.
More than a dozen small protests were also held across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The protesters in Peshawar blocked GT Road for hours and demanded that the government withdraw hike in gas prices. Most natural gas stations were also closed in Punjab under a partial strike. Residents of Lahore’s Rana Town also blocked a road and held a demonstration against the government. The protesters, mostly women and children, also chanted slogans against the government. They demanded that the government take immediate steps to ensure a smooth supply of gas.
In Multan, up to 1,500 people, mostly transporters and CNG dealers, held a demonstration and blocked roads in protest.
The government has hiked the national gas price by 14 percent amid yawning energy shortfalls that have sparked recent protests across the country. Queues snaked from petrol stations as cars stocked up on dwindling gas stocks.
“The gap between demand and supply has been increasing because of severe cold and the company is unable to bridge it,” a senior official at the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Company told AFP.
The company official said that a proposal is also under consideration to terminate the gas supply for thousands of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations supplying public and private vehicles for one month. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk