Transport strike called off after the government assured CNG supply

Transport strike called off after the government assured CNG supply

The government has assured the All Pakistan Public Transport Workers Union Association and Taxi Union of twin cities that uninterrupted supply of CNG will be provided on the two-and-half days that gas stations are closed for public every week to conserve energy.

This positive development made the transporters of Islamabad and Rawalpindi to call of their wheel-jam strike on 19 October, 2011.

The local administration and the Ministry of Petroleum held up a series of meetings to provide assurance to transporters that there will be a separate policy for them to keep public transport running during the 60-hour gas load shedding.

The delegation headed by Chairman, All Pakistan Public Transport Workers Union Association Haji Zahoor, General Secretary Dillawar Gardezi, patron-in- chief Transporters Association Raja Changez Akhtar and Taxi Union Association President Malik Aftab and others announced to ply public transport on all the city routes as usual, the spokesman of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration claimed.

The Chairman of All Pakistan Public Transport Workers Union Association Haji Zahoor said that they have called off the strike and have nothing to do with the strike because they disassociate themselves from it.

He urged that they will not be a part of the strike since their demands are met, and he sent out a message to his fellow transporters that they should continue their business as usual and provide maximum relief to the commuters.

Meanwhile, All Pakistan CNG Association has said that they will cooperate with the transporters so that the commuters don’t have to suffer during the gas load shedding days.

The association has assured the government that they will keep supplying CNG to the public transporters on load shedding days that are Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

However, the problem still lies that which CNG stations should remain optional which will provide CNG to the transporters on off days, and the government was still undecided about how to provide CNG to the transport sector.

Chairman of the association Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha said that he has rejected the idea of designating 5 to 10 CNG stations transporters during the off days.

“Transporters account for around 60 per cent of CNG consumption, so the government should rather reduce the off days from three to one,” he maintained.

Posted by Hassan Ali on Oct 19 2011. Filed under Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry