Citizens suffer as pumps run dry due to oil tankers’ strike

Karachi
Petrol pumps will be able to provide fuel soon when oil tankers resume their supply to them, the petrol pumps association chief said on Tuesday.
“The oil tankers association had ended its strike and they will resume the supply of petrol by Tuesday night,” Abdul Sami told The News.
Vehicles were seen lined up at petrol pumps across the city as over the oil tankers association’s strike.
Sami said there was no problem as far as the CNG supply was concerned but as gas price had been reduced, the owners of CNG stations might face a problem.
The motorists waiting in queues at petrol pumps said the owners of filling stations in connivance with the oil tankers association were deliberately keeping them closed as part of a conspiracy.
The oil tanker association had announced the strike after the government notified a decrease of Rs 3 per litre in the prices of petrol and diesel from Tuesday.
Petroleum and CNG Association chairman Shabir Sulemanji had said earlier in the day that 30 percent of fuel stations in Karachi had run out of petrol and diesel because of the strike. He hoped that situation would improve by Wednesday.
However, petrol was available at only around 20 percent filling stations in the city.
Filling stations were illegally selling petrol at a price of Rs100 per litre or more.
The association had announced the strike in protest against the sales tax imposed on the transportation of oil.
The oil tanker association withdrew their strike after successful negotiations with the government.