From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Despite the government’s warning to the petrol pump owners to refrain from stocking petrol, there is a se-vere shortage of the commodity in different parts of Punjab.
As per details, several pumps in Gujranwala, Okara, Faisalabad, Shakargarh, Narowal and other cities have stopped the sale of petrol. And even where it is available, it costs consumers Rs300 per litre each. There are long queues of vehicles as most of the petrol pumps in Gujranwala are closed for the third day. Despite the fact that the district administration had launched a crackdown last night, it has failed to deter the petrol pump owners from selling the commodity at the rates of their choice. While they are charging Rs200 per litre from a motorcyclist, the rate shoots up in the case of a car where it reaches Rs1, 000 per litre even. The situation is worse in Narowal and the suburbs where the sale of petrol has almost stopped. The same is the situa-tion in Shakargarh where people are running from pillar to post in search of petrol.
There are instances in which some people are purchasing petrol from the pumps and are selling it in black.
Similarly, in Hafizabad, people are totally at a loss to figure out where they could get petrol from.
