Filling stations’ owners in NW district seek compensation

PESHAWAR: The owners of petrol pumps in North Waziristan have threatened to launch protest by closing all the filling stations from June 20 if the government did not compensate them for losses.

Speaking at a news conference here on Friday, the president of the petrol pumps association in North Waziristan, Malik Raqeeb Gul, said that there were 69 filling stations in North Waziristan. He said the owners of the filling stations had suffered losses amounting to Rs560 million during the military operations.

Raqeeb said they had informed the previous and incumbent governments of their demands that termed them genuine but no step was taken to compensate them for their losses. He said huge funds had been released from Islamabad for the reconstruction of infrastructure in North Waziristan, including the petrol pumps.