HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court on Friday ordered the provincial government to restrain the fuel stations from selling compressed natural gas (CNG) to public transport vehicles.
The Hyderabad Circuit Bench here further ordered the government to take action for removal of the CNG cylinders from those vehicles. “The SSPs and DCs of whole Sindh are directed that they shall ensure that all CNG filling stations are restrained from providing CNG/LNG to the vehicles which fall within the meaning of public transport,” read the order passed by the division bench of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Muhammad Iqbal Mehar.
“Sindh chief secretary and Commissioners shall ensure that all DCs are complying with the directions,” it added. The Bench directed the federal and provincial governments to compensate victims and families of the cylinder explosions in public transport. During the hearing, the petitioner Abdul Nasir Khan apprised the court that its July 28, 2016, order in that regard had not been implemented.
The court said that the responsibility for implementing the order lied with the police and respective Regional Transport Authority to take action against all transports violating the judgment of the SHC. The bench ordered the police and the transport authorities to implement the order within 15 days and submit the compliance reports.
The Secretary District Regional Transport Authority Saudur Rehman informed the court that his department had removed the cylinders from hundreds of public transport vehicles following July 28 order. However, the official told that the removed cylinders were handed over to the police adding that the latter released the same after obtaining affidavits from the owner transporters that they would not use them again in their vehicles.
The court observed that the authority was responsible to maintain record of those owners and their vehicles and it ordered the secretary to submit details of the said vehicles and owners within five days. The bench cited a 2012 judgment of the court and directed the federal and provincial governments to provide Rs 700,000 compensation against each of the 13 deceased persons of a 2014 CNG explosion incident on Mirpurkhas-Khipro road.
The order added that Rs 200,000 compensation to each of the injured of the same incident should also be paid. The SHC fixed the next date of hearing for the case on December 15.
