Courts in Multan and DG Khan on Friday issued stay orders against the indefinite closure of CNG stations in the districts on petitions filed by CNG station owners.
Notices were also issued to the Oil and Gas regulatory Authority (Ogra) managing director, general manager and operations incharge.
Several CNG station owners of Multan told a judicial magistrate that they had spent millions to acquire land, obtain NOCs and purchase machinery.
They said Ogra had at first, asked them to shut down their business for three days a week citing load management, which they had. However, they said, a month ago the stations were ordered to shut down for an indefinite period.
This had destroyed their businesses, they told the court.
The judge, issuing a stay order against the closure of CNG stations, directed Ogra officials to file a reply by January 12.
The Dera Ghazi Khan president of the CNG station owners association also approached the court, saying that the government was forcing them to shut down their businesses indefinitely which had caused huge losses.
He asked the court to order that the CNG stations be opened for business.
The court ordered Ogra officials to submit a reply by January 21.
It also allowed the 16 CNG stations in the district to start serving customers.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2013.