A severe shortage of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has deepened into a crisis across Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where the suspension of supply has begun forcing restaurants to shut down and left households struggling to cook, according to local reports.
The shortage has hit Muzaffarabad, Jhelum Valley and surrounding areas, where daily life has started to suffer as gas becomes unavailable. Several restaurants have begun closing their businesses because of the lack of gas, while domestic consumers are facing serious difficulty in preparing food.
According to the reports, gas distributors, agency holders and shopkeepers have suspended the sale and supply of gas, leaving consumers in severe hardship.
Members of the public say it is the responsibility of the relevant institutions to ensure that gas is sold at legal rates, but stopping the supply altogether deprives people of a basic necessity. They have called on the Azad Kashmir government, the district administration and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to take immediate notice of the LPG crisis and ensure an uninterrupted supply.
The public has also demanded legal action against distributors and agency holders who do not comply with the orders of the Supreme Court and the rates fixed by OGRA, including suspension of licences and sealing of agencies where violations are proven.
Residents made it clear that neither selling gas at arbitrary prices nor refusing to sell it at the fixed rates is acceptable, and appealed to the government and the administration to intervene immediately to end what they described as an artificial shortage.
The LPG crisis comes against a background of a long-running dispute over gas cylinder prices in the region. Earlier reporting from Muzaffarabad described a dispute between the local administration and gas dealers over cylinder prices, with residents saying rising costs had made it increasingly difficult for ordinary citizens to access gas and that they had faced inconsistent supply and had been forced to pay higher-than-standard rates. That dispute, which drew attention to affordability and the lack of local filling stations, remained unresolved at the time.
Residents say the current suspension of supply has made the situation worse, because households that already struggled with prices and irregular availability now cannot obtain gas at all. With winter approaching, the demand for cooking gas is rising, and people in the affected areas say they need a reliable supply at the officially fixed rates rather than either inflated prices or a complete halt in sales.
