Families in Rawalpindi are returning to firewood and coal for cooking as natural gas remains available for barely six hours a day, with winter approaching and alternative fuels getting more expensive.

According to reporting originating in The Express Tribune, gas supply in the city comes in three two-hour intervals, and prolonged outages from 9pm until Sehri are increasingly common. Households are shifting to firewood, coal, kerosene, discarded furniture wood and sawdust, and the report says rising demand is contributing to timber theft from public and privately owned forests.

What households are paying

A new domestic LPG cylinder now costs PKR 13,500, up from PKR 10,000, while refill charges have risen from PKR 3,000 to PKR 5,000. Commercial cylinder refills have nearly doubled to PKR 25,000, from PKR 12,500–14,000 last year.

Coal costs PKR 800–1,000 per maund, dry firewood PKR 1,500–1,800 per maund, ordinary firewood PKR 1,300–1,400 per maund, and sawdust PKR 700 per maund.

Shehzad Manzoor Kiyani, divisional president of the All-Pakistan Clerks Association, said inflation and unreliable gas had forced government employees back to firewood and coal, with households spending PKR 10,000–12,000 a month on LPG.

Official prices and a shutdown warning

Separately, DailyGraph reports that regulator OGRA raised the official November LPG price to PKR 294,075 per tonne, from PKR 279,341 in October, with an 11.8-kg cylinder up PKR 173 to PKR 3,470. The same report says the LPG Marketers Association is threatening a shutdown from 16 November if the private sector is sidelined under the proposed LPG policy.

Sources: The Express Tribune, via ANI syndication, 1 November 2026; DailyGraph. This story is distinct from DailyByte's earlier LPG price and deregulation posts: it follows Rawalpindi households, not the policy debate.