KARACHI, Sept 7: The Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI), major group of transporters, on Wednesday withdrew its strike call for Friday but warned of a fresh call if prices of petroleum products were not reduced by September 15.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting presided over by KTI President Irshad Bokhari. It clarified that the KTI had nothing to do with the strike call given by the opposition for Friday, and declared that members of the group would continue their normal business on that day.

With reference to his meeting with the police officials, Mr Bokhari told the meeting that the police had promised to provide adequate security to transporters on Friday.

The meeting criticized the repeatedly increased petroleum prices and urged the government to bring petrol price down to Rs37 and diesel price to Rs24 per litre. It maintained that if the prices continued to rise, it would become difficult for transporters to continue their business.

TRADERS: The All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries, Sindh Zone, has announced its support to the opposition’s strike call for Friday.

In a press release issued here, it stated that 300 shops in different parts of the city would be kept closed to express solidarity with the opposition in its stance against price hike, corruption, deteriorating law and order, increasing incidents of robbery, as well as and against ‘slavery of the western countries’.