The owners of the vehicles announced at a conference on Wednesday that they are no longer part of the All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association. “The owners of tankers are facing severe financial hardships and we have formed our own alliance now,” said Mohammad Hanif Khan, the general secretary of the newly formed association.
He said that his former association’s leaders used to pressurise oil companies by organising strikes, but this did not benefit the owners of the vehicles. “The strikes left us with more financial problems and our former leaders used to make agreements for their own benefits,” said Khan.
The members of the new group allege that their former association’s leaders forced small companies to give preferential treatment to a select few vehicle owners with regard to the supply of oil. “This has forced us to form a new association. We want to purge our former union of the corrupt leadership,” said Khan.
He claimed that the new union has around 6,000 small and large tankers. He requested private oil manufacturing companies to give equivalent transportation fares to the vehicles at par with those offered by the state-run company Pakistan State Oil and other large private oil manufacturing companies. “If the small private oil manufacturing companies fill vehicles on a first-come, first-served basis, everyone will be happy.”
Khan alleged that the leaders of their former association are corrupt and have been nominated in a number of FIRs. He demanded that the government take action against them. Shafiullah Marwat, the president of the newly formed association, was also present on the occasion.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 7th, 2012.
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