Transporters-govt talks set for today

KARACHI:

Pakistan's freight network remained at a standstill on Saturday as goods transporters kept their wheel-jam strike going for an eighth day, disrupting the movement of imports, exports and essential supplies and, according to transporters, causing more than Rs50 billion in economic losses.

The All Pakistan Goods Transporters Alliance said containers carrying imported and exported goods had remained stranded across the country, with around 10,000 containers normally leaving ports every day.

Transporters are demanding implementation of the axle-load regime, changes to the customs SRO and withholding tax mechanism, and daily fuel price determination, among other issues. They said all freight movement had been suspended because of the strike.

Alliance president Malik Shahzad Awan said negotiations with the federal minister for maritime affairs had been successful, but no progress had been made on demands concerning the ministries of communications, finance and petroleum.

He said a deadlock remained over the alliance's other demands from the federal and provincial governments and vowed that the nationwide strike would continue until the demands were accepted.

In a video statement, Awan announced that negotiations with representatives of the federal, Punjab and Sindh governments would be held at the Governor House on Sunday.