Gas shortages put at risk ambitious push to expand Pakistan's forests

Islamabad

EACH winter, a familiar sight crops up in Islamabad and the nearby bustling city of Rawalpindi: people queuing outside firewood shops, waiting their turn to fill bags or plastic baskets with wood to burn when their household gas supply is disrupted.

Gas shortages are increasingly hitting households during the chilly winter months, often when people are trying to prepare dinner or need to heat their homes in the evenings.

"What else can one do other than burning fuelwood, when one does not get gas supplied at his home?" grumbled Muhammad Razzaq, a 50-year-old government employee, as he recently collected a load of firewood.

Last winter, he said, he needed to buy firewood for cooking and heating water for bathing and dishwashing when no gas …