KARACHI: Around 20,000 petroleum tankers refused the transportation of petrol and diesel to fuel pumps on Monday, in solidarity with edible oil suppliers who are resisting entry of a large conglomerate in their business.
The petroleum transporters partially disrupted the supply of auto fuel to different parts of the country as protestors stopped even those who tried taking their tankers out from main hub of the Shireen Jinnah Colony.
According to the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association (APOTA), the protest was held in caution that petroleum supply could also be handed over to the National Logistics Cell (NLC), the army-run transport giant.
“A perception is being created that the Pakhtoon are trying to hijack the entire system,” said APOTA’s chairman, Akram Khan Durrani. “But everyone stands to lose, including the contractors from Punjab, Sindh, and Balochistan.”
The problem started when producers of edible oil tried hiring the NLC for movement of their product and private contractors torched NLC’s trucks. The supply of edible oil has been suspended for the past ten days as manufacturers have shut their mills.
“We have written agreements with the Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturer Association (PVMA). Everything has been laid out,” said Durrani. “They cannot annul the contract unilaterally.”
The petroleum dealers fear that fuel pumps will be shut by today if the tankers do not resume supply. In most cases, owners of petroleum and edible oil are the same.
“There hasn’t been any major shortage yet because of ample product availability at the pumps,” said an official of the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association, Sami Khan.
A meeting between the oil tankers’ owners and the Sindh home secretary has failed and the two sides are waiting for directives from senior officials. NLC does not have a fleet of edible oil tankers and it sublets the contract to multiple private transporters on predefined terms.
Not budging
On its part, the PVMA said that it will not put up with the bullying of private transporters who do not agree to sort out issues through dialogue. “The association believes that the private contractors have started to dictate the manufacturers and are tired of their attitude,” said an edible oil supplier. The government must convince both sides to reach an agreement, he said. “Otherwise, this would set a very bad precedent.”
On the other hand, a long time oil contractor Baktawar Khan said that business models are not changed overnight. “PVMA came to us with a request for arranging oil tankers which we did after investing a lot of money. It is their right if they want to get rid of us, but at least give us three years.”
Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2012.
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