Karachi, May 2: The city transporters on Tuesday disapproved the fresh increase in fuel prices and warned of an indefinite strike if the government failed to cut diesel and petrol prices by Rs10 per litre by May 6. The decision came at a meeting of various associations of transporters held in the office of the National Transport Ittehad (NTI) Karachi with NTI chairman Saleem Khan Bangash in the chair.

The meeting criticised the increase in petrol and diesel prices at the rate of Rs1.41 and Rs1.55 per litre, respectively.

The transporters said frequent increases in fuel prices had hit hard citizens as well as transporters. They feared that prices of essential commodities would also go up as a result of this hike.

The meeting noted that the government of Sindh had increased fare of public transport in May 2005 when diesel was available at Rs27.50 per litre against its new price of Rs38.

The transporters said oil prices were raised on the pretext that it had been increased in the international market but regretted that when the global fuel prices came down, no price cut was ordered in the local market.

They claimed that in the past three months the international prices had been dropped from $70 per barrel to $60 per barrel, but there was no reflection of this reduction in Pakistan.

The meeting noted that Pakistan was importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries at a concession rate of $50 per barrel.

They said the government was selling locally refined diesel and petrol to Afghanistan at the rate of Rs17 and Rs25 per litre, respectively. However, they regretted, the government was not ready to provide such relief to its own citizens.

The meeting decided to summon a meeting on May 7 and announce a strike for indefinite period.—Agencies