KARACHI – Coupled with the strike-call given by the Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) on Thursday to protest the POL price hike, the announcement to continue the strike on Friday (today) has exhausted the petrol pumps across the city of its supply.
Fearing that the strike’s extension would leave them without fuel, citizens in large numbers took their vehicles to petrol pumps to get them refuelled. Besides that, many people got several bottles and cans filled for storing petrol for the coming days.
This caused an increase in demand, which in turn resulted in fuel shortage at many filling stations across the city. Shortage of petrol in some areas spread panic among the locals who suspected that the pump owners were also participating in the transporters’ strike. However, some pumps at Shahrah-e-Faisal were observed supplying fuel to consumers, but the pump operators were unsure if they would have enough for Friday.
A filling station operator in Baloch Colony told Pakistan Today that there were reports of shortage of petrol in many areas of the city. He said that the shortage had increased demand at other filling stations, and that his pump might also run out of fuel by late night. He also said that there is a gap between demand and supply as the worried citizens are thronging towards petrol pumps to refill their fuel tanks and avoid any untoward situation if the transporters continue their strike.
