Residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi — Pakistan's twin cities — have been forced to abandon conventional cooking fuels and switch to wood and coal, as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices soar to nearly double the regulated rate and piped natural gas remains available for just six hours a day, local Pakistani media reported on Monday, 26 October 2026.

The Scale of the Crisis

LPG cylinders in the twin cities are being sold at PKR 600 per kilogram — more than twice the PKR 279 per kg ceiling fixed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), according to Pakistani daily Dawn. An 11 kg domestic cylinder now costs PKR 6,500, while commercial cylinders are being traded at over PKR 25,000.

Neither the district administration nor OGRA has been able to enforce price controls, the daily reported. Domestic and commercial consumers have reportedly not received LPG cylinders from the state-run Sui Natural Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) for the past two months, leaving private companies to fill the supply vacuum — at sharply elevated prices.

What Residents Are Experiencing

Piped natural gas is available only in three narrow windows: 7 am to 9 am, 12 noon to 2 pm, and 6 pm to 9 pm — totalling six hours daily, according to Mohammad Sajjad, a resident quoted by Dawn. He noted that low gas pressure during even these windows has disrupted daily routines and that SNGPL has not resolved the issue despite repeated complaints.

Another resident, Abdul Rasheed, said the shortage had persisted for over a month, and complaints filed with the relevant department had yielded no response from authorities. Many families, he added, had been left with no reliable means to cook.

A local shopkeeper, Mohammad Akmal, told Dawn that LPG sales had increased 'manifold,' with city residents — who previously had little reason to buy cylinders — now refilling once a week. 'Earlier, people from far-flung areas got their cylinders filled, but now local residents have also started buying cylinders and refilling it once a week,' he said, adding that prices spiked further because dealers themselves were procuring at elevated rates.

Broader Fuel Price Surge

The cooking fuel crisis sits within a wider inflationary shock gripping Pakistan. Petrol prices climbed to PKR 377.71 per litre on 24 October, up from PKR 299.50 on 1 July — a rise of 26.11% in under four months of financial year 2026-27, according to Pakistani daily The Express Tribune. High-speed diesel rose to PKR 393.66 per litre from PKR 311.47 over the same period, a 26.39% increase. Passenger transporters and freight operators have been among the hardest hit by the diesel surge.

Why the Shortage Is Worsening

The timing coincides with the onset of cold weather, which typically spikes gas demand across northern Pakistan. Structural underinvestment in SNGPL's distribution network, combined with the regulatory authority's inability to police retail pricing, has allowed the informal LPG market to operate well above official caps. This is not the first winter that Islamabad and Rawalpindi residents have reported gas supply disruptions, but the combination of prolonged SNGPL defaults and runaway LPG prices represents a sharper squeeze than in recent years.

What Comes Next

With cold weather expected to deepen, demand for both LPG and wood fuel is likely to intensify further. Analysts and consumer groups in Pakistan have called on OGRA and the federal government to enforce price caps and restore SNGPL supply — but no official timeline for resolution had been announced as of Monday.