Karachi Transport Ittehad withdraw strike call after successful talks with Sindh governor

KARACHI: The Karachi Transport Ittehad delegation on Tuesday withdrew the strike call after holding successful talks with Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, ARY News reported.

The Karachi Transport Ittehad delegation called on Governor Sindh Imran Ismail and expressed their concerns over the hike in CNG prices.

The transporters delegation demanded Imran Ismail to restore the old prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

The Sindh governor assured delegation about resolving their issues and said that he will talk to federation about the hike in CNG prices.

‘The several demands of transporters delegation are genuine which would be addressed accordingly,” he said, adding that transporters have shown concerns over the attitude of police which will be resolved after holding a meeting with Inspector General (IGP) Sindh Kaleem Imam.

Earlier in the day, the Karachi Transport Ittehda has announced strike on July 10 (Wednesday) over the recent hike in the prices of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

Earlier on July 3, an official of the transport organisation, Mehmood Afridi, had said transporters will not bring their vehicles onto the roads to protest against the increase in CNG prices.

He said transporters didn’t increase bus fares despite the fact that CNG prices had gone up by Rs50 since February this year.

Read More: CNG’s price hike results in sparse public transport in Karachi

The federal government on June 30, hiked the General Sales Tax (GST) on CNG by 2.5 percent.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) issued a notification of the increase in GST of CNG by 2.5 percent. CNG consumers will have to face the burden of Rs19 per kilogram of CNG owing to the GST increase.

It hiked the CNG price by per kilogram to Rs137 in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while in Sindh and Balochistan the new price of the CNG will be Rs125 per kilogram.