KARACHI, March 27: The supply of petroleum products of private oil marketing companies to upcountry was suspended on Tuesday evening after tanker owners went on an indefinite strike to protest against non-payment of the fare by private companies. The fare was fixed by the government.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Israr Shinwari, a spokesman for All-Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners’ Association, said that 15,000 oil tankers would remain off the road to register their protest.

He said that the oil marketing companies, except the government-owned, were victimizing oil tanker owners and were not paying the fare fixed by the government.

He said Karachi Commissioner Roshan Sheikh had called a meeting on Monday, but oil companies did not accept demands of tanker owners. He said an APOTOA meeting on Tuesday, chaired by Akram Durrani and Haneef Kakar, decided to go on strike because the government had failed to resolve the matter.