This article is from Friday April 1, but if carried out would present some problems to both the military effort as well as Afghan transport. I don't see how to deny fuel to military forces w/o cutting off all fuel shipments. No sense in becoming hostage to internal Pakistan politics. Better to import fuel from Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan and help their economy, than feed the Paki stupidity.
PESHAWAR: The All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association (APOTOA) continued its strike on Thursday for an acceptance of its 20-point demand charter, saying it would stop supplying oil to US forces in Afghanistan from today (Friday).
Haji Muhammad Ayub, APOTOA's NWFP president, told Daily Times that oil and diesel supplies to US and allied forces in Afghanistan would be stopped from today unless the government accepted their 20-point demand charter. About 150 oil tankers cross into Afghanistan every day via Torkham and each tanker carries about 40,000 litres of fuel to US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
He said APOTOA had allowed 37 oil tankers into Afghanistan on Thursday, but would stop all tankers from crossing Torkham from today.
APOTOA office-bearers met NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman on Thursday, but the meeting proved futile as oil tanker owners refused to call off their strike without a clear assurance of their demands being accepted.
Meanwhile, truckers said they had blockaded one of the country's largest oil terminals at Mehmoodkot, Punjab, and were preventing supplies reaching the north of the country from there, Reuters reported. Strikers had also stopped supplies of fuel from the terminal to US forces in landlocked Afghanistan, he said.
Pakistan State Oil played down the impact of the strike, saying it would not cause any shortages. "Our operations have not been disrupted even for a minute," PSO said in a statement. |