On strike: Oil tankers suspend fuel supply as protest enters third day

Three rounds of negotiations with PSO officials and contractors have failed.

KARACHI:

After Karachi, the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association suspended the supply of furnace oil and other fuel to Shikarpur and Quetta as their strike against the government-owned Pakistan State Oil (PSO) entered the third consecutive day on Friday.

Members of the association and oil tankers drivers had staged a protest demonstration at their camp on Shireen Jinnah Colony Road. The association has suspended supply of furnace oil and other fuel products from the PSO to all stations in Karachi since Wednesday.

“We are expanding our protest circle to all oil marketing companies and will suspend fuel supply across the country if the managing director of the PSO or other top officials don’t address our demands,” said Mir Yousuf Shahwani, the chairperson of the association, while talking to The Express Tribune, adding that three rounds of negotiations with the PSO officials and contractors have failed.



The oil tankers’ representatives demand that the government arrest the persons involved in the killing of their colleague, Mehboob Shah, who was shot dead for offering resistance in a mugging incident while carrying cash from a private bank in Shireen Jinnah Colony. They also demanded security for their colleagues in the oil terminal areas in Keamari and Shireen Jinnah Colony.

The association also demanded that the PSO return all fines taken from the oil tankers who failed the sample tests. Their vehicles were also blacklisted by the oil company subsequently. “The PSO should clear our insurance claims without any delay and stop illegal and unlawful fines over fuel shortages,” said the association’s general secretary Shafiq Kakar, adding that the PSO had imposed fines of up to Rs300,000 in case of fuel shortages and sample failure in addition to blacklisting the vehicles.

“If the fuel is filled, sealed, carried and emptied by the PSO then how can they fine the oil tankers owner? We transport sealed freight. It is the PSO’s responsibility if the fuel gets spoiled. They have trackers system to keep a check on the oil tankers,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2014.