LAHORE, July 19: The LGP Association of Pakistan has decided to go on strike from Monday against “the Lahore district coordination officer’s heavy-handed interference in the market”.

LPG supplies to Lahore will be stopped from next week, the association said on Saturday.

“The DCO deputed officers at various LPG filling plants in Lahore on Saturday who have been making unwarranted and illegal demands to LPG marketing companies,”said association spokesman Fasih Ahmed.

“The behaviour of these officers has been thuggish and portrays a very sorry image of the city district government,” he said, adding that LPG marketing companies operating in Lahore would have no choice, but to scale down and eventually stop all supplies to the city.

“LPG marketing companies are free to sell gas anywhere in Pakistan and if Lahore is an investment-hostile environment, the companies will move out,” said Ahmed. “The new DCO’s extra-constitutional actions are deeply troubling and regrettable.”

Ahmed said the DCO’s “vigilante action” would cause prices in Lahore to shoot up dramatically. “We have already informed the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority that LPG marketing companies shall not be responsible for the non-availability of the gas in Lahore,” he said.

The decision to stop all supplies to the city will be formally voted on in a general meeting of the association in Lahore early next week. — Staff Reporter