July 08, 2008	Tuesday	Rajab 4, 1429

KARACHI, July 7: Transpor-ters have deferred their strike for a raise in public transport fares and other demands to Friday. Earlier, they had announced the strike for Thursday. The decision to delay the strike came at an emergency meeting of the Karachi Transporters Ittehad (KTI) with it’s president, Syed Irshad Hussain Shah Bukhari, in the chair.

Representatives of the Pakis-tan Transporters Association, Oil Tankers Association, Sindh Bus Owners Association, UTS Bus Operators Association, Metro Bus Association and other organisations attended the meeting.

It was stated that that Karachi-based transporters had earlier planned a two-day strike but considering the problems likely to be faced by commuters, the strike would be confined to one day (Friday).

The meeting regretted that the caretaker government had increased the POL prices twice but the present elected democratic government followed suit thrice.

They said the prices of petrol had been increased by Rs21 per litre in just four months and the transporters could not run their business at the prevailing fares.

Meanwhile, Sindh Minister for Transport Akhtar Hussain Jadoon has claimed that transporters had called off their strike.

He said they agreed to withdraw the call after a delegation of transporters called on him in his office on Monday.—APP/PPI