ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain warned on Tuesday the country's gas reserves were fast depleting, as he anticipated their complete disappearance in the coming years.

Hussain made the comment while addressing a news conference in the federal capital after the federal cabinet meeting.

He said Pakistan had witnessed record production of urea due to regular gas supply to the industrial sector, though he maintained it was important to restructure the overall gas system in Pakistan.

"Residents of big cities have been consuming gas at subsidized rates," he told the media. "Their burden is carried by 78 percent people in other areas of the country who have to rely on LPG, coal and other kinds of fuel."

Pointing out that such arrangement was not sustainable for long, he noted: "Gas is depleting by nine percent every year for the last two years. As a result, you are not going to have gas in the next couple of years."

Hussain maintained that people living in big cities were used to reduced gas tariffs, adding they "will have to change their habit."

"This energy resource is also meant for those 78 percent people who are currently deprived of it," he continued.