Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro J.- Through the instant petition the petitioner has claimed following relief:- a. That this Honorable Court may be pleased to issue a writ of prohibition restraining the respondents from Gas Load-shedding and ensure the regular and uninterrupted supply of Gas to the petitioner and other consumers. b. That this Honorable Court may further be pleased to direct the respondents to issue bill to the petitioners and other consumers as per actual consumption.
2. The petitioner in person contends that he is a consumer of the Gas and pays the bills without any default. The respondent SSGC is obligated to provide uninterrupted Gas to the petitioner for domestic consumption. He contends that the respondents have lowered the Gas pressure, besides they were doing unscheduled load-shedding, which results in huge inconvenience to the petitioner and other consumer. He submits that there is bounty of the Gas in the country, therefore, the respondents may be directed to provide uninterrupted Gas to the petitioner.
3. Mr. Abid Hussain Qadri has affected his appearance and filed Vakalatnama on behalf of the Deputy Manager Legal of SSGC. He contends that there was a wide gap between the demand and supply of natural Gas due to the continued depletion of existing Gas reserves. He contends that the shortfall has been made through the injection of degasified liquefied natural Gas RLNG into system.
He contends that the petitioner had an alternative remedy of filing complaint before the Oil and Gas Regularity Authority (OGRA), under the OGRA Ordinance 2002, therefore, the petition was not maintainable.
4. Learned DAG has supported the contentions advanced by the learned counsel for SSGC.
5. Heard arguments. Perused material available on record.
6. Perusal of the record reveals that the SSGC has issued schedule of load-shedding and the Gas supply. Per schedule, SSGC provides Gas during morning time from 06:00 a.m to 09:00 a.m, during afternoon from 12:00 p.m till 02:00 p.m and in evening from 06:00 p.m till 09:00 p.m. Though the load-shedding schedule has been made public through print and electronic media but no law has been placed before this court, which empowered the SSGC to schedule the supply of the Gas for domestic consumers. Since the supply of the case and its connections fall under the policy domain of the SSGC for which this court lacks jurisdiction to interfere. When confronted Petitioner submits that the gas supply schedule during afternoon hours was not justified, it hurts the working women and school going children. He requested to direct the Respondents to revise the afternoon Gas Supply Schedule.
7. Careful perusal of the Gas Supply Schedule submitted by the respondents reflected that during the morning time gas is supplied for 3 hours from 06:00 a.m until 09:00 a.m, during the afternoon gas is supplied from 12:00 p.m till 02:00 p.m and during night from 06:00 p.m to 09:00 p.m. The afternoon schedule of gas is not matching with the working hours of the employees working under 08 hours schedule, in particular those who are employed in education and health sector. The children go to the school at 08:00 AM and remain there until 02:00 p.m with same situation with the health sector.
8. The children return home after 02:00 p.m after attending school and they fail to get fresh meals due to un-availability of the Gas. In the given circumstances, the stance of the petitioner that the Gas is being insufficiently supplied appears to be correct. The respondents are therefore advised to reconsider and revise the afternoon gas supply schedule by increasing the supply time by one hour, which should be from 12:00 p.m to 03:00 p.m in the afternoon to suffice to the needs of the school going children. For Which the Learned Counsel submits that he will render such advice to SSGC administration to do the needful, as the inconvenience faced by the school going children and working women is redressed.
9. For the aforementioned reasons this petition is allowed, the respondents are directed to revise their afternoon gas supply schedule and ensure the supply of Gas during afternoon for 03 hours.
10. The petition stands disposed of in above terms. Office to send copy of this order to the respondents for compliance.