City faces petrol shortage: Transporters flex muscles for hefty fare hike

PESHAWAR, April 1: Following overnight hike in the prices of petroleum products, various filling stations in the city reported severe shortage of petrol on Friday while people are in for a shock as transporters are flexing muscles to prevail upon the Regional Transport Authority for immediate and `fair` increase in transport fares. Long queues were observed outside filling stations, especially at the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) outlets in the cantonment areas. The operators at these stations near the Peshawar Central Prison and Press Club said that the POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) products had not been supplied since appearance of reports about the hike in oil prices. When contacted, Petroleum Distributors Association`s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa president Mansoor Sharif said that due to upward revision of its price the supply of petrol ran short, which caused problems for the motorists. However, he showed optimism that the problem would be resolved by Saturday (today). Mr Sharif said that the super petrol was supplied from Attock Oil Refinery, but the stocks vanished due to rush in the urban areas. He said that the oil demand in urban areas of the province would be met soon. However, he suggested that the government should establish more refineries at proper locations to meet the demand for POL products in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa otherwise the problem would keep emerging from time to time. Also on Friday, a leader of the Urban Transport Union, Peshawar, Haji Amanullah submitted an application to the RTA, demanding increase in the fares. He said that whenever petroleum prices were increased the decision was implemented with immediate effect, but the fares were not revised despite transporters` applications for the purpose. RTA secretary Naseem Bacha told Dawn that the transporters` application would be forwarded to the Commissioner Peshawar division on Saturday (today) for approval."We will not allow raise in fares for CNG-run vehicles," Mr Bacha categorically said and added that the fare list might be revised upward allowing Re1 increase per stop for buses and other vehicles using diesel. For the inter-district and inter-provincial transport, the RTA secretary said that the government had already prepared a slab-based fares list and the transporters themselves would revise it. He said that keeping in view that CNG cost less a difference of 25 per cent would be maintained in the fares of CNG- and diesel-run vehicles. He asked the passengers to complain to the RTA officials in case of overcharging by transporters. "If the fare is increased for the local transport the commuters will have to pay Rs11 instead of Rs10 from one bus stop to the next," said the secretary. When contacted, Sarhad Transport Owners Federation leader Haji Ihsanullah Khan said that he would not increase the fares unless the government decided fares for the CNG vehicles. He said that CNG was used by most of the vehicles in the province, but the transporters were charging fares for diesel. He asked the government to check this practice and take stern action against transporters, who were fleecing the poor passengers. Our Mansehra correspondent adds: Transporters here have announced 20 per cent increase in the fares on inter-city routes. "If the government withdraws the recent increase in prices of petroleum products we will also withdraw the fare raise," said Jan-i-Alam, president of Hazara transport union, here on Friday after a meeting of the union leaders. Talking to reporters, he said that the union had decided to increase the fares by 20 per cent on all routes from Saturday (today). Mr Alam said that if the people started protests against the POL price increase they would also join them. "We have no other option but to raise fares after surge in oil prices," he said.