Pakistan: Petroleum transporters threaten wheel-jam strike; urge govt to increase fuel transportation fares

Petroleum transporters have announced that they will hold an indefinite protest from Wednesday onwards if the government does not increase fares of fuel transportation that have remained unchanged since 2011 and warned to cut fuel supplies across the country.

Israr Ahmed Shinwari, spokesman of All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association (APOTOA) said if their demands are not met within a week of protest, then they will give a call for a wheel-jam strike. "Our 40,000 members are part of the protest," he added, reported the Express Tribune.

Notably, there are around 40,000 oil tankers engaged in transporting oil from Karachi to the upcountry areas.

If the wheel-jam strike takes place, it will trigger an oil crisis in the country as oil trucks and tankers are a big source of fuel transportation from seaports to the rest of the country, reported the newspaper.

Shinwari said that the sit-in protest will continue outside the headquarters of a state-owned oil marketing company.

"We have given call for an indefinite peaceful protest", he said. "We will call off the protest only after the government accepts our demands and increase fares of fuel transportation that have remained unchanged since 2011," reported the newspaper.

Furthermore, the APOTOA spokesperson said that the "Police officials have approached us to call off the protest so that they (police) could connect us with the officials concerned," adding "However, we have refused to withdraw the protest call."

( With inputs from ANI )

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