Careless use of gas-fired appliances during winters are a cause of unnecessary deaths and injuries especially in the bitterly cold regions. Every year, the Company launches ’Winter Safety Campaign’ in Balochistan to create awareness about this hazard, through a blend of Below the Line and Above the Line activities.
SSGC Corporate Communication Department, in conjunction with Regional Office, Quetta organized, like in the yesteryears, an Ulema Conference at Quetta Press Club as part of their Social Contact Drive. The Conference, featured the provinces clerics who, as influential opinion leaders emphasized on the safe use of natural gas.
They appreciated SSGC’s role in stemming the declining trend of the number of deaths and injuries as a result of its safety awareness programs.
The eminent clerics and social workers stressed on the customers to avoid gas theft since it was against the very tenets of Islamic beliefs and education. The speakers included Maulana Syed Muhibullah Agha, Allama Syed Hashmi Mosavi, Sayed Habibullah Chishti, Professor Arshad Yameen, Mufti Muhammad Ahmed Qandhariand social worker Abdul Kakar.
In their speeches, SSGC’s Madni Arafat Siddiqui, GM (Distribution-Balochistan) and Shahbaz Islam, GM (HR and Corporate Communications) underscored the need to practice safe use of gas. They said that as a result of regular campaigns, there has been a sharp drop in the number of casualties and emphasized that gas theft was a main drain on SSGC’s resources and called on Ulemaand other opinion makers in Balochistan to discourage it in every forums.
Later in the evening, the organizers held a dinner for the media fraternity of Balochistan at a local hotel. SSGC’s management represented by Amin Rajput, AMD, Imran Farookhi, DMD (Corporate Services), Saeed Larik,SGM (D-North), Madni Arafat Siddiqui, GM (D-Balochistan) and Shahbaz Islam,GM (HR and Corporate Communications) addressed the media persons.
They appreciated the fact that due to the annual winter safety campaign, the number of causalities from careless use of gas appliances has shrunk during the last couple of years. They thanked the media for propagating the message about precautionary measures to the customers, with the result that so far no death has been reported from callous use of gas from anywhere in Balochistan.
In their remarks, President Quetta Press Club Raza Rehman and President of Balochistan Union of Journalists Khalil Ahmed pointed out at incidents of issues of low gas pressure in Quetta and other adjacent areas.
The MD assured them that the management of SSGC is closely looking into the issue of low pressure and is taking practical steps such as expanding transmission infrastructure across Balochistan as well as setting up LPG-Air Mix plants to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to an ever increasing customer base.
On the 13th of December, the Campaign was formally launched from the Regional Office Quetta. The senior management, executives and staff took oath to continue with its mission to propagate safe and wise use of gas to the masses. The launch featured a roll out of around twenty newly branded 1199 Emergency vehicles that carried relevant messages related to gas theft and winter safety.