Abstract
In the midst of political instability and an economic meltdown, an acute energy crisis is making the lives of the people of Pakistan even more difficult. Most of the medium sized industrial plants in major cities of the country remain closed for more than half a week, every week, forcing industry to relocate factories to other, energy rich, countries. The availability of natural gas to the compressed natural gas (CNG) sector is cutoff for up to three days a week causing hardships to commuters. Pakistan is one of the largest users of CNG as a transportation fuel in the world.   Approximately 3.5 million vehicles in Pakistan including a large number of public transport vehicles use CNG and can also fuel switch to gasoline if necessary.  Similarly, fertilizer producers which use large amounts of natural gas remain out of production for most of the year. Winters are marred by large scale public demonstrations against the non-availability of natural gas while summers witness even larger and fiercer protests due to rolling blackouts for more than half a day, every day.
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