LAHORE, Aug 31: Motorists and commuters here on Friday suffered a lot due to the closure of over 90 per cent petrol pumps run by private owners on the first day of the strike called by the Petroleum Dealers Association to protest recent reduction in their profit margin by the government from four to two per cent.

However, around 10 per cent of the filling stations, majority of which are owned by the petroleum companies, government organisations or defence forces remained open.

Compressed natural gas (CNG) stations are not part of the strike yet and they kept on providing services to the motorists, bringing some relief.

Otherwise, it was a complete strike and could cripple life if continued for indefinite period of time, PDA office-bearers claim.

“There was a complete strike in all major cities except in Islamabad and Balochistan province,” PDA President Majeed Malik said.

He said the association itself allowed dealers to open their filling stations in Islamabad to save the country from embarrassment because of presence of diplomatic community in the capital. In Balochistan, dealers sell Iranian smuggled oil and there was hardly a concept of petrol stations as in other parts of the country, he added.

“The success of the call was not because of the association called it, but it was because of the reduction in profit margin that has made it virtually impossible for dealers to run their stations. With the new profit margin, one cannot meet even operational cost of the filling stations, leave alone earning some profits. That is what had made the call a stupendous success,” Majeed said.

PDA secretary-general Zakir Qureshi said Indian petroleum dealers were getting seven per cent profit margin, but in Pakistan they had been getting a meagre four per cent, which had further been reduced to two per cent only.

“What else petroleum dealers can do? Had the government cut dealers margin and passed it on to consumers, it could have made some sense. But, it is ridiculous that the government had cut dealers’ margin and pocketed the same entirely,” Zakir added.

There was a complete strike in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Multan and other major cities of the province, he claimed. —Staff Reporter