RAWALPINDI: Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filling stations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad spent Thursday playing cat and mouse game with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) officials, who visited the outlets with the orders to stop gas supply to vehicle owners.

SNGPL had on Wednesday issued notices to the CNG filling station owners, asking them to close their outlets on Thursday under the new gas load management programme which allows supply of gas for two days instead of three.

However, the All Pakistan CNG Owners Association (APCNGA) refused to accept it, terming it a violation of Islamabad High Court (IHC) orders which allows opening of CNG stations for three days in a week. By and large, CNG filling stations remained open in the twin cities.

SNGPL teams visited Satellite Town, Benazir Bhutto Road, Peshawar Road, Bostan Khan Road near Chaklala SchemeIII and Jhelum Road, I-9, I-8, G-9, G-10, F-8, F-6, F-10, Kashmir Avenue and asked the CNG stations to stop the supply.

But, once the teams went back, the owners opened their outlets. `We received a message from the APCNGA early in the morning not to close the outlets. We did not violate the rules issued by the company but it violated the court`s orders,` said Mohammad Shahzad, an owner of the CNGstation at Tarnol.

APCNGA Chairman Ghayyas Abdullah Paracha said despite court orders to allow CNG filling stations to open their outlets four days a week, the SNGPL tried to forcefully close the outlets on the third day on Thursday.

`We have clear orders of the court which allows us to open filling stations for four days, but we opened the stations for three days with the mutual understanding of the government and SNGPL. The SNGPL`s move against the filling stations on Thursday was strange,` he said.

Mr Paracha said they were going to gethelp from the court.

However the petroleum minister has invited us for negotiations.

`The APCNGA and the officials are finding ways to avoid such a situation to come up in future,` he said.

`There are two options under consideration: either the government allows opening of the CNG stations throughout the week for few hours or reduce weekly off days. The decision will be made after taking all stakeholders on board,`he said.

When contacted, SNGPL Rawalpindi Region General Manager Javed Iqbal said majority of the CNG filling stations re-mained closed on Thursday on the company`s directives.

`We issued notices to the owners to close their outlets and they accepted. They had not been stopped by force. A few stations remained open in the twin cities and action would be taken against them after the approval of SNGPL head office in Lahore,` he said.

He said there was shortage of gas in the supply lines and therefore the company had issued weekly gas load management plan.

`For next week, the plan will be announced soon,` he said.