Truckers vow to continue their strike

Supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan have been suspended since Jan 4.

KARACHI: As a nationwide truckers’ strike continued in its 14th day, the protesting transporters welcomed the owner of the country’s largest transporter company at their rally at Mauripur Road on Thursday.

Transporters who carry supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, as well as, cargo for the Afghan Transit Trade went on strike against the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) bonded carrier system on January 3. They claimed on Thursday that they would continue their strike until the system was abolished.

The All Pakistan Goods Transporters Ittehad (APGTI), an association of truckers associated with the cargo supply to Afghanistan, complained that the system established the monopoly of a few licensed companies over the cargo transport.

Welcoming a giant

The protesting truckers welcomed Taj Muhammad Afridi, managing director of the alHaj Group of Companies, at their rally. Afridi’s group is the biggest transportation contractor in the country, and supplies fuel and cargo to Nato forces in Afghanistan. The transporters danced while music played from loudspeakers, and shouted slogans against the country’s tax collecting authority. Afridi assured the transporters of his full support. “My trucks are on strike, and I will try to take your demands to the government.”



Afridi owns around 1,500 oil tankers and hundreds of trucks in the country. Over 8,500 trucks belonging to APGTI have been on strike over the last two weeks. “The strike causes over Rs50 million in losses to transporters every day. But we will continue our strike till the elimination of the [bonded carrier] system,” said APGTI general secretary Hanif Marwat.

Meeting Customs officials

As the transporters met the chief collector of Pakistan Customs on Wednesday, they said that they recognised that the government already has a lot on its plate. “But it should not take this as our weakness,” said Marwat.

The chief collector, Amir Muhammad Khan Marwat, assured the transporters that he would convey their concerns to the FBR.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2013.