June 19, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1429

PESHAWAR, June 18: About 90 per cent filling stations in NWFP remained closed on Wednesday owing to cut in supply of petroleum products forcing transporters to keep their vehicles off the roads.

Sarhad Transport Owners Association Peshawar chapter president Haji Jehangir Khan Afridi told Dawn that transporters had been faced with great problems for the last many days as the owners of filling stations were not providing them diesel.

He alleged that fuel was being smuggled to Afghanistan instead of supplying it to the local dealers which caused serious crisis in the province. He said most of the transporters had opted to keep their vehicles off the roads as they could not beg for oil every day.

Meanwhile, Sarhad Petroleum Cartage and Dealers Association office-bearers have also expressed grave concern over the short supply of oil to the filling stations, saying that oil was not available at about 90 per cent of the filling stations in the province while the supply at the remaining 10 per cent was also next to nil.

Speaking at a press conference here on Wednesday the association president Mansoor Sharif said that daily consumption of oil in the province was 2.5 million litres while the current supply to Taro Jabba oil dept was hardly from 700,000 liters to 800,000 litres daily.

He said oil consumption in this season was usually increased in the province every year. The short supply aggravated the situation badly affecting the local dealers and transporters as well, he added.

The government, he said, was supposed to give Rs37 on per litre diesel, Rs47 on kerosene oil and Rs7.15 subsidy on petrol. The government was claiming to have been paying the subsidy but it was not paid to the oil companies, he said.

Referring to the reports, he said the government had to pay Rs168 billion as subsidy to oil companies and of it Rs118 billion only to Pakistan State Oil. He said that being a state-run company the PSO was under immense pressure as it had to supply oil at all costs but its own filling stations were short of fuel.

Mr Mansoor said that Shell and Caltax were supplying were directly supplying oil to Afghanistan where per litre diesel was sold at Rs72.

He said the political administration was encouraging oil smuggling to Afghanistan and demanded of the NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti to take immediate notice of the crisis.

He said that former prime minister Shaukat Aziz had given licenses to some ghost companies which had no offices but used to get oil on fake invoices and supplied to its dealers besides smuggling it to Afghanistan.

He demanded inquiry into the affairs of the companies and also asked for merging them into the big companies. He said the only solution to the crisis was to stop oil smuggling to Afghanistan.

Our correspondent from Buner adds: The poverty-stricken people of Buner have confronted with yet another crisis of petrol and diesel which paralysed business activities in the district.

Owing to the crisis the filling station owners are reluctant to provide fuel to locals for their vehicles.

The transporters visit filling stations early in the morning and return at night without getting fuel.

They have to leave their vehicles at the filling station with the hope to get fuel the next day.

Only relatives and close friends of petrol pumps can get fuel.

In a desperate attempt to get fuel some of the motorists agree to pay more than the fixed rates. Ironically the administration has turned a blind eye to the situation as it did during the flour crisis in the district.

The suffering masses at the filling stations keep asking journalists to highlight their problems.

Mediapeople too are among those who suffer due to the unavailability of fuel because they cannot afford to pay extra money for the fuel.

However, the judiciary has come to the rescue of the poor masses as the district and session judge Anwar Ali Khan has taken suo motu notice of the situation directing the senior civil judge Manzoor Qadir Khan and civil judge cum judicial magistrate Islamudeen Khan to take immediate steps to redress the problem.

Both the judges have conducted raids on various filling stations asking the owners to continue smooth supply to all commuters in case of having fuel. An oil supplier was has been sent to jail for over charging in Daggar.

They have directed the district police to enlist each and every oil tanker entering the district with its destination and make sure that the fuel at the pumps will be distributed in the presence of Station House Officers.