The Karachi Transport Ittehad on Thursday hinted at launching a nation-wide protest against recent raise in fuel prices by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee and in this regard summoned an emergency meeting in Karachi on Saturday, September 3.
Karachi Transport Ittehad President Syed Irshad Hussain Shah Bukhari in a statement said that the Oil Companies Advisory Committee in a span of just eight months, since December 15, 2004, had raised petrol price by Rs 15.9 per liter and diesel price by Rs 10.22 per liter.
He said that there was no precedence in the 58-year history of the country of recent record-breaking oil price hike. He warned that if this trend continued there would be no need of calling strike, as the vehicles would automatically be forced to remain off-roads.
He said that the transporters had demanded that the Oil Companies Advisory Committee be made bound of reviewing oil prices once in a year or at the most twice a year, but the government threw behind the back this just demand.
He warned that this time the Karachi Transport Ittehad would not confine its protest just to Karachi but try to widen its scope to the national level. He said that this would be the main agenda of Saturday meeting.
Meanwhile, Alliance of Market Association Karachi in a statement released on Thursday strongly criticised the recent oil price hike as announced by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee on Wednesday, and termed it a non-serious attitude of the government regarding safeguarding the interests of masses.
Alliance of Market Association Karachi Chairman Atique Mir and other office-bearers Mirza Ahmed Baig, Haji Noor Ahmed, Syed Sharafat Ali, Hafiz Hammad Shaikh, Abdul Sallam, Inayat Hussian, Liaquat Ali Gabba and Afreen Siddiqui said that the recent unprecedented hike in oil price would shatter all dream of economic progress and prosperity in the country.
They termed the recent hike a fatal blow against the poor masses and stressed that all burden of price hike should not be shifted to them alone. They said that there was a sea difference between tall claims of public welfare of the government and actual steps taken by it. They alleged that the government was implementing a plan that would further push the masses towards an abject poverty.
The trade leaders alleged that the rulers just to save their own luxuries were seeking sacrifices from the poor masses and in fact snatching the last morsel of food from their mouths. They said that it was a high time now that the rulers annnounce cutting down their own royal luxuries, "otherwise the poor dejected masses would be forced to seek an alternate way to get rid of the present rulers".
They asked that an alternate to petroleum products be soughed on emergency basis and availability of CNG on cheap rates be ensured to provide some relief to the masses. They said that after the recent raise in fuel prices, travel expenses would go beyond the reach of common man, rates of daily-use items would touch new unreachable heights, and dreadful results of this bleak scenario would engulf the whole society.
Separately, Pakistan Labour Bureau (PLB) also slated the raise in oil prices. PLB Pakistan Central Co-ordinator and veteran labour leader Habibullah Junaidi in a statement termed the oil rate hike a cruse for the poor and middle-class people. He said that it would further raise poverty and street crimes.
He suggested that instead of shifting the whole burden of rising oil prices to poor masses, the Prime Minister should cut down his cabinet. He asked the government to slash all its non-productive expenditures.
The Haliqa-e-Fikar-wa-Nazar Karachi also criticised the fuel price hike and termed it an anti-people and anti-county decision.
Halqa Sindh President Dr Abdul Hameed and other office-bearers Mansoor Shaikh, Roshan Ara Begum, Ayub Abbassi, Muhammad Nizam, Saddiq Khatri and others in their joint statement charged that the tall claims of the government to give relief to the masses had proved a farce.
They demanded that the recent decision to raise fuel prices be withdrawn, henceforth. They said that the masses would never accept this cruel decision. They alleged that the government wanted to push the masses to hunger by raising prices of all utilities.
Separately, Landhi Association of Trade and Industry (LATI) also flayed the hike in oil prices. LATI Chairman Shahbaz Ali Malik, condemning the oil price hike, said the increasing fuel prices would further escalate production costs and trigger inflation.
He said that the raise in oil prices would not only prompt inflation but also make the country's exports non-competitive in the international markets. He urged the government to reduce unproductive and additional expenditures of bureaucracy and provide a relief to the masses.