Petrol pumps strike: Musadik Malik reaches Karachi to hold talks

KARACHI: State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik has paid an emergency visit to Karachi and reached Pakistan State Oil (PSO) headquarters after petroleum dealers announced a countrywide strike on Saturday, ARY News reported.

Yesterday, the petroleum dealers had announced to shut all petrol pumps across the country at 6:00 am tomorrow for an indefinite period until the federal government meets their demands.

Ahead of the strike, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik visited Karachi on an emergency basis and reached PSO headquarters to hold talks with the petroleum dealers.

READ: Petroleum dealers announce countrywide strike

A delegation of petroleum dealers has also reached the PSO headquarters. Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) Chairman Samiullah Khan is leading the delegation.

The delegation held negotiations with the state minister to increase dealers margin and steps to curb smuggling of diesel and petrol from Iran.

During the talks, Malik offered Rs2.65 per litre hike to the dealers margin, however, the dealers insisted on the Rs5 per litre increase in their commission. The negotiations continued for 1.5 hours, however, they remained inconclusive so far.

The current dealers’ margin is Rs6 per litre on the petroleum products, whereas, they demanded to make another hike to the margin by Rs5.

The dealers’ commission had been increased by more than 25% to Rs7 per litre in 2022, witnessing a hike in OMC’s margins from Rs3 and Rs3.68 per litre on petrol and HSD to Rs6 per litre in November 2022.