Sui Southern Gas Company has disconnected the supply of gas to leading government hospitals in Karachi on non-payment of bills for a long period.
The company disconnected gas supplies to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Sindh Government Hospital North Nazimabad, Trauma Centre of Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital and other defaulting entities.
SSGC’s spokesperson informed that Abbasi Shaheed Hospital was continuously defaulting its current as well as previous gas bills and the previous arrears had reached a significant level.
On the last disconnection by SSGC, the management of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital submitted an undertaking in which they assured that the hospital will ensure payment of current monthly bills along with one million rupees on a monthly basis from its outstanding amount. After this undertaking, the gas supply to the hospital was restored.
SSGC’s spokesperson also said that contrary to this undertaking, the hospital management did not pay the amount which they had agreed; rather they used to make payments after 3-4 months according to their own comfort to offset the current bill amount, whereas the outstanding amount kept on increasing.
According to SSGC’s spokesperson, timely disconnection notices were served to the hospital management and many official meetings were also convened in this regard but there was no serious response from the hospital management to settle the outstanding dues.
The outstanding amounts of Sindh Government Hospital North Nazimabad and Trauma Centre of Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital and other hospitals also rose to considerable levels due to which their gas supplies were also disconnected.
SSGC spokesperson reiterated that the company will continue the crackdown against all government and private defaulting companies by disconnecting their gas supplies.
