Petroleum transporters have warned that they will cut petroleum supplies all over Pakistan and announced an indefinite peaceful protest and sit-in outside the headquarters of a national oil marketing firm.
“We have given a call for an indefinite peaceful protest,” a spokesman for All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association (APOTOA), Israr Ahmed Shinwari, told The Express Tribune.
“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,” he continued.
Approximately 40,000 oil tankers deliver oil from Karachi to upcountry destinations. “Our 40,000 members are part of the protest,” Shinwari said and added, “If the government failed to accept our demands within a week of protest, then we will give a call for a wheel-jam strike”.
Truck owners and the concerned oil marketing firm had agreed that the rates would be adjusted in compliance with the existing petrol and diesel costs but the company had disregarded the agreement.
Under the purview of the Oil Tankers Owners Grand Committee, the APOTOA has compiled a list of 20 demands to present to the government but the oil transporters have been unsuccessful in officially contacting government officials.
“Police officials have approached us to call off the protest so that they (police) could connect us with the officials concerned,” Shinwari claimed and added, “However, we have refused to withdraw the protest call”.
Oil Crisis Fears
Pakistan will be hit by an oil crisis if the wheel-jam strike takes place as oil trucks and tankers are a major source of fuel transportation from the seaports to other parts of the nation.
A former minister from Sindh, Irfanullah Khan Marwat, will address the demonstrators at Shireen Jinnah ColonyOn Wednesday morning, after which they will march to the oil marketing company’s headquarters in Clifton.
Shinwari added that no private trucks should be permitted to carry oil from one location to another in the country and that only government-registered trucks should be part of the fleet.
“If NLC (National Logistic Cell) trucks are allowed to transport oil, then they should be allowed on the condition that they would get their tankers filled by standing in proper queues. They will have to wait for their turn and that they would not be given undue priority over others,” he declared.
Costly Fitness Certificates for Trucks
Shinwari demanded that the government should decrease the fees for granting fitness certificates for trucks, for which the oil marketing firm always charges between Rs. 100,000 and Rs. 200,000.
“We have updated our trucks by expanding oil carrying capacity to 24,000 liters on the demand presented by the oil marketing company,” he said.
“Now, it is demanding us to reduce it back to 20,000 liters. This will cost around Rs. 100,000 per truck. There are 40,000 trucks. The alteration would cause a loss worth millions of rupees,” Shinwari explained.
However, the President of the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Contractors Association (APOTCA), Abidullah Afridi, remarked,
We have given no call for protest or strike at all. APOTOA (or Oil Tankers Owners Grand Committee) has no capacity to hold the protest. It will fail.
Jo petrol ye chori krty hain us say apna hisab brabar kr lety hain ye log…
In ki is hrkt ki waja say ab in pay salhti bhe ho jay gi.. or jo ye chori krty rahy hain us ka jugaad bhe koi na koi lga lay ga