PESHAWAR: Owners of brick kilns in Peshawar on Sunday held a protest demonstration against the increase in price of coal and demanded of the provincial government to fix price of the commodity.

The protesters, led by office-bearers of All Pakistan Bricks Klins Association’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter, marched from Ring Road to Peshawar Press Club while shouting slogans against the coal price increase.

The association’s provincial president Hamid Ullah Fawad told mediapersons that during the past one week the price of coal had been doubled, which was unaffordable for the brick kiln owners to buy it.

“The price was increased from Rs20,000 to Rs40,000 per tonne which forced us to come on to the streets,” he said and warned that the association members had been left with the only option to announce increase in the price of bricks.

Other office-bearers, including Ashraf Bacha, Ayeen Khan, Mir Rehman and Wali Mohammad, said that they had contacted other associations in the country to take a unified stand for provision of coal on subsidised price.

“We will either increase the price of bricks or shut our business in protest if the government does not pay attention to our demand,” they warned.

The brick kiln associations, they said, would hold a joint meeting in Peshawar to announce their next line of action.

They said that the traders dealing in coal business should also reverse the increase in its price otherwise the people would not buy it.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2022