Edible oil suppliers continued their strike on Thursday to press their demands for revoking a contract recently awarded to a new transport company, transporters said. Dozens of tankers loaded with edible oil are parked on National Highway due to the continued protest by All Pakistan Edible Oil Tankers Association (APEOTA), causing delays in supplies of the commodity to countrywide manufacturing units.
“The protest strike is against the awarding of a contract to share the oil supplies with the existing private transport groups,” said a protesting trader, Ghulam Khan. APOETA set up a protest camp at Port Qasim since October 4, 2012, and asking the authorities to cancel the contract with the NLC. The transporters feared the new transport group will deprive them of their existing supply orders. Chairman APOETA, Bakhtawar Wazir, said the transporters will not supply edible oil from the seaport in protest against the award of contract. He alleged that some unidentified people opened gunfire at his association members while moving their loaded tankers on main highway, as a result, five of them were wounded. He feared the fresh contract to a company will ruin their existing businesses of supplies.
