As usual, winters in Pakistan come with a shortage of natural gas. For their heating and cooking needs, most of the urban and suburban population depends on piped natural gas supplied by the Sui Northern and Southern Gas Pipelines Limited. Faced with these shortages, many in our cities and towns are forced to turn to alternative fuel sources like coal, firewood and liquified petroleum gas (LPG). LPG vendors have cashed in on the situation by jacking up prices. This is a criminal practice that needs to be put to an end. If the government is unable to provide citizens with the resources that they need, the least it can do is take measures which would protect them from exploitation by private enterprises. In recognition of the issue of gas shortages, former Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif had vowed that electricity and gas load shedding will end in 2017.Though the LNG imported through Port Qasim has helped the industrial sector, domestic consumers remain at the mercy of gas supplied from reserves in Sui. Meanwhile, the reserves in Sui are fast running out. In February 2017, former Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources and incumbent PM Shahid Khaqan Abbassi had informed a parliamentary committee that only eight to nine percent of known gas reserves were remaining in Sui. Given the situation, these cities can’t remain dependent on Sui gas forever. It has become necessary to come up with alternative sources to provide for Pakistan’s domestic energy needs. The authorities must seriously start evolving a medium-to-long-term policy catering to the energy needs of domestic and commercial consumers in Pakistan’s sprawling urban centres. One of the options we need to explore with greater vigour is to take advantage of oil and gas fields of Iran and Central Asia by improving our relations with these neighbours. Meanwhile, we must also look into setting up more renewable energy projects. * Published in Daily Times, December 30th 2017.