Fuel Prices: Transporters threaten citywide strike

Say they do not want to transfer the burden of the recent fuel price hike onto commuters.

RAWALPINDI: Transporters in the twin citizens warned to go on strike from September 10 if the government does not reduce petroleum prices.

Addressing a press conference at the Rawalpindi Press Club, the union of Rawalpindi and Islamabad transporters’ representatives said they do not want to transfer the burden of the recent fuel price hike onto commuters. United Transport Federation (UTF) President Akhtar Awan said intercity transport and routes from Rawalpindi to Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and other cities would be suspended indefinitely if the government does not reduce petroleum prices.

“It is better to close down transport, than ask for fare increases,” Awan said, adding that the government seems ignorant of what the common man has been going through after the petroleum prices were increased.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2012.