PESHAWAR, Aug 21: The CNG stations in Peshawar on Tuesday suspended operation for an indefinite period in protest against the imposition of a new tax and violation of what they called safety standards by the city district government.

The NWFP chapter of the All-Pakistan CNG Association had given a call for the strike.

About 68 gas stations in the provincial capital remained closed and the owners vowed to continue strike till the acceptance of their demands.

The strike affected almost 15,000 vehicles in the city. The vehicle-owners were compelled to switch over to petrol.

The general secretary of the association, Ghiyas Paracha, told Dawn that the district government had recently imposed one per cent levy on the total sale of gas station which, he said, was discriminatory.

He said that such tax did not exist anywhere in the country except Peshawar and it could not be tolerated.

Accusing the district government of ignoring the safety standards, Mr Paracha said the administration was violating its own by-laws meant for regulating the CNG sector in terms of public safety. According to the by-laws, minimum distance between two gas stations in the city should be 300 metres and for those located outside the city should be 1,000 metres.

He said this condition had been revised time and again for ‘vested interests’ and the distance for the gas stations outside the city had now been decreased to 200 metres causing establishment of more and more stations at short distance.

He said that no gas station could be set up near bridges, schools, hospitals, parks and any other public place, but a number of stations had been allowed to establish in violation of such rules and even gas stations were operating adjacent to the airport runway.

Installation of CNG-kits in unauthorised workshops is also one of the major causes of the strike, he said.

Mr Paracha said that they would announce their future line of action at a press conference on Wednesday.