Rejects the government’s daily fuel price revision mechanism, says the strike will continue until its demands are accepted
Chairman of All Pakistan Petrol Pump Association Humayun Khan addressed a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday announcing a nationwide shutdown of petrol pumps after talks with the government failed. SCREEN GRAB
The All Pakistan Petrol Pumps Owners Association (APPPOA) on Tuesday announced a nationwide shutdown of petrol pumps from Tuesday evening after talks with the government on their demands ended without a breakthrough.
Amid volatility in global oil prices following renewed hostilities in the Middle East, the government last week switched to a daily fuel price revision mechanism. Under the new system, daily prices are based on a seven-day average of international market prices to align with international standards.
In a press conference, association chairman Humayun Khan said that representatives of the All Pakistan Petrol Pump Association from all four provinces, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, had met Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and presented two key demands.
Read: Govt hikes petrol price by Rs 4.93, HSD by Rs 7.15 per liter on July 22
“Our two main demands were that our commission should be converted to a percentage-based system and that the daily revision of fuel prices should be abolished and revert to a monthly mechanism,” he said.
He said the negotiations had not resolved the association’s concerns.
“Our problems remain unresolved. If you look at the situation with the oil marketing companies (OMCs), traders across Pakistan are currently going through extremely difficult circumstances,” he said.
Criticizing the government’s decision to revise the prices of petroleum products on a daily basis to align them with international prices, Khan said traders across Pakistan had suffered losses in the last two to three months.
“The price was increased yesterday and we hear that it will be increased again today. The government has shifted the burden to petrol pumps, OMCs and refineries to avoid public criticism and says it is no longer their responsibility,” he said, adding that the authorities were misleading the public by raising prices every day.
“The public understands this very well. Whether you increase prices by Rs100 at once or by Rs5, Rs10 or Rs20 every day, the result is the same,” Khan added.
The chairman said the association had called on the government to solve the problem in a way that was fair to both the public and petrol pump owners, but despite every effort, “we have come to realize that this government does not want to solve the problems of business.”
He announced a nationwide shutdown, including in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, adding that the association was also in touch with oil tanker owners who would soon announce their own strike.
Also read: Government moves to daily POL prices amid global headwinds
He called on the government to listen to the concerns of the business community and described petrol pump owners as the biggest stakeholders in the oil industry. He lamented that whenever the government formulated a policy, petrol pump owners were not consulted.
He said the shutdown would continue until all the union’s demands were accepted.
Previously, negotiations between the government and the union failed to make a breakthrough, with both sides ending the meeting without progress.
In a video message, association leader Nauman Butt said talks with the oil minister had yielded no positive result, while discussions on dealers’ margins and the implementation of daily fuel price revisions also remained inconclusive.
He said the union had decided to shut petrol pumps across the country from midnight on July 22 and would continue the nationwide strike until its demands were accepted.
The association directed all petrol pump owners to participate fully in the strike and appealed to them to keep their shops closed from midnight on July 22.
Read more: Daily fuel audits trigger commuting chaos
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Goods Transport Alliance announced its support for the strike called by the association.
In a statement, the president of the alliance, Malik Shehzad Awan, urged the federal government to accept what he described as the legitimate demands of the All Pakistan Petrol Pump Association and the Petroleum Dealers Association.
Awan said transporters, petrol pump owners and the dealers association were heading for a nationwide strike over what he called the federal government’s flawed policy.
He also rejected the government’s decision to revise the prices of petroleum products daily.
“The strike by All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association and Petroleum Dealers Association will bring our transport activities to a standstill,” he said.
He called on the Federal Government to “come to its senses” and take decisions after taking stakeholders into confidence.
Awan also said that the federal and provincial governments were not providing any relief to freight transporters.
