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Ahead of the nationwide strike by the petroleum dealers association in Pakistan, traffic jams were reported in major cities across the country on Wednesday, along with long queues at petrol stations as citizens rushed to refuel their vehicles.
This comes after Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) on Wednesday announced a strike and closure of fuel stations starting tomorrow Thursday over the government's failure to increase the dealers' profit margin, Dawn newspaper reported. However, the message issued by the PPDA did not mention when the strike will end. "The strike will begin at 6 am tomorrow," PPDA Chairman Abdul Sami Khan said. "The promise remains unfulfilled to date ... [and] now, because of [growing] inflation and increase in the prices of petroleum products, it has become difficult for dealers to run fuel stations," the PPDA handout read, as quoted by Dawn. The release also said the dealers had previously given the call for a strike from November 5 but had withdrawn it after a government team, held a meeting with them on November 3 and agreed to fulfil their demands. According to the report, the meeting had also constituted a committee to ensure the implementation of the agreement for the increase in margins through approval from the Economic Coordination Committee and the federal cabinet by November 15. The statement added, "the government had agreed to raise the profit margin by six per cent and sought time till November 17 to implement the decision". "Dealers continued the supply of petroleum products in the public interest, but five days have passed since the agreed date of November 17 and the government representatives don't seem serious," the statement said. (ANI)
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