City petroleum stations on Friday stopped sale of diesel and petrol in anticipation of increase in the price of petroleum products on May 31, which caused severe hardships to the vehicle owners. No filling station located on busy roads of the provincial capital soled petrol.
In the morning, petrol pumps owned by state-managed PSO kept operating as usual but in the afternoon they also stopped sale. It was learnt that they were forced by the petroleum dealers association to stop selling the product. However, dealers claimed that they were short of supply, but could not ascertain as to why they were short of fuel.
According to employees of petroleum stations, they had been directed by their employers to stop sale. However, in suburbs of the city, filling station owners while taking advantage of the situation overcharged and soled petrol for high price. In some areas, they charged upto Rs 80 for a liter.
A motorbike owner told Business Recorder that he got one liter petrol for Rs 90. In Township and Allama Iqbal areas, long queues of vehicles were seen and people had to wait for hours for their turn. On Queens Road and some other localities, incidents of exchange of hot words between the vehicle owners and the employees of filling stations were also reported.
Interestingly, the city district government and other agencies responsible for checking this state of affairs did not move and kept silence. People have criticised the authorities concerned for their apathetic attitude. It may be mentioned that the government is expected to make an upward revision in the price of petroleum products on Saturday.