BAHAWALPUR/Lahore, Feb 2: The owners of CNG stations will stage sit-ins at Islamabad and Lahore on Feb 10 if the federal government did not restore gas supply to their outlets across the country.

The threat came from All Pakistan CNG Owners Association Chief Ghiyas Paracha while he was talking to the media here on Saturday.

He also announced the association members from Bahawalpur city would start supplying gas to consumers from Sunday (today) following the court orders.

If the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) officials tried to stop the CNG sale, the station owners would put up a strong resistance, he warned.

He alleged that prime minister’s adviser on petroleum Dr Asim Husain was trying to harm CNG business because he wanted to promote his own Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business.

He also accused the federal government of minting money to meet expenditures of the upcoming election, vowing to resist such ‘plans’.

SNGPL’s warning The Sui Northern Gas pipelines Limited (SNGPL) on Saturday warned all the stations selling compressed natural gas (CNG) against this “illegal activity and threatened a legal action” against them.

In a press release, the company said that in view of a wide gap between demand and supply of natural gas in winter, it was decided to close down the CNG sector to provide uninterrupted gas supply to domestic consumers in the Punjab region.

But the company has observed that quite a few CNG stations were violating gas load management plan, resulting in low gas pressure complaints in the domestic sector.