In Rawalpindi, gas runs just six hours a day — and kitchens are going back to firewood and coal
File photo: stacked firewood for household fuel — with gas in short supply in Rawalpindi, many households are relying on firewood and coal again.
RAWALPINDI — As winter sets in, lighting the stove has become a daily struggle again in Rawalpindi. Piped gas reaches homes for only about six hours a day, and for the rest of the time families are left to fend for themselves. The result is a quiet return to an older way of cooking: low- and middle-income households, roadside eateries and small tandoors are back on firewood, coal and kerosene.
Gas in three windows — and nothing after 9pm
Supply comes in three two-hour windows a day. After 9pm, the outage stretches right through until Sehri, which makes the evening meal the hardest one of the day to cook. Across the city, gas load management now runs 18 to 20 hours a day.
Firewood and coal are dearer too
Demand has pushed up the price of the very fuels people are falling back on. On the open market, coal sells for Rs800 to Rs1,000 per maund, dry firewood for Rs1,500 to Rs1,800, and ordinary firewood for Rs1,300 to Rs1,400. Sawdust has reached Rs700 a maund. Even waste wood from furniture factories — once dumped along Nullah Lai — is now being collected by residents for their kitchens.
Cylinders are out of reach for many
The gas shortage has also driven up cylinder prices. A new domestic cylinder has gone from Rs10,000 to Rs13,500, a used one fetches Rs8,000 to Rs10,000, and a domestic refill has risen from Rs3,000 to Rs5,000. Commercial refills, Rs12,500 to Rs14,000 a year ago, now cost as much as Rs25,000.
A month’s fuel bill now eats a clerk’s budget
Shehzad Manzoor Kiyani, divisional president of the All Pakistan Clerks Association, says inflation has brought back the era of firewood and coal. Clerical and lower-grade government staff, he says, are now spending Rs10,000 to Rs12,000 a month on LPG alone — which is why so many have switched. Teachers’ representatives say the new pattern in many homes is a two-fuel household: the cylinder for daytime cooking, firewood for the evening meal.
Residents also complain that price-control magistrates and the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority have failed to stop profiteering, despite government claims of relief measures. Winter has only just begun, and if gas stays this scarce, both the demand for firewood and its price look set to climb further.
