Impending oxygen shortage spooks K-P Hospitals and production units report surging demand, official privy to the case insist everything still under control PESHAWAR: When news of acute oxygen shortages started pouring in from the neighbouring country, the Islamic Republic too had to hit the gas on its production capacity. With cases exploding during the pandemic’s third-wave, it was projected that Pakistan could also be experiencing the same catastrophic fate as India, if conditions did not improve by Ramazan’s end. In the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which houses only two oxygen plants, the influx of coronavirus cases meant that the demand was suddenly much higher than the entire region’s production capacity. Case numbers were propelling in every hospital, attendants could be seen running from pillar to post for oxygen cylinders and the worst of K-P’s nightmares appeared to looming on the cusp.