The Petroleum Dealers Association will shut down the fuel stations across Pakistan at 6 am tomorrow after the failure of talks with the government.
“They asked us to call off strike and promised to resolve the issue, but we cannot postpone the strike on mere assurances,” PPDA chairman Abdul Sami Khan said.
He explained that he met almost every stakeholder in the government, including those he could not name, besides the finance minister, chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority chief, petroleum secretary and representatives of the oil marketing companies’ advisory council, but dealers’ complaints remained unaddressed.
He said that more than 13,000 petrol stations would be closed from July 5 at 6am onward and the strike could continue over the following days unless demands were met and notified. He appealed to the owners and operators of retail outlets to keep their stocks for July 4.
On the other hand, the petroleum division set up a monitoring cell to oversee the fuel supply position and coordinate with stakeholders during the strike call of petroleum dealers.
The representatives of oil marketing companies, Ogra and petroleum division had appointed focal persons to be part of the monitoring cell.
The petroleum division again issued letters to OMCs “to ensure availability of sufficient stocks of petroleum products” at company-owned or company operated and other associated sites of respective OMCs to avoid any disruption of supply chain and inconvenience to the general public and industry.
