PESHAWAR: Like other parts of the country, a severe petrol shortage was reported in the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the countrywide protest of the oil tankers association on Wednesday.

Long queues of cars and motorcycles were seen at petrol pumps, especially in urban and semi-urban areas of Peshawar.

Motorists and motorcycles waited for a long time to fuel up in the extremely hot and humid weather to their misery. Employees of petrol pumps insisted that panic buying led to the petrol shortage.

They told Dawn that most vehicle owners turned up despite having full fuel tanks over the fear that the oil tankers’ strike would continue for many days.

Many filling stations on the GT Road and in city and cantonment areas of the provincial capital remained closed in the day.

“I saw a large number of vehicles wait for fuel at a University Road petrol pump,” Naeem Khan of Hayatabad told Dawn.

He said he often fueled up at that petrol pump but had never seen such long queues.

“Out of the fear that the oil tankers’ strike may continue, I filled the fuel tank of my car,” he said, adding that he asked his relatives, too, to do so to prevent the possible trouble.

The motorist said he waited for around 30 minutes in queue to get petrol as a large number of cars, motorbikes and other vehicles were present at the petrol pump.

Mohammad Ishaq of the Defence Colony complained that he visited several petrol pumps in search of petrol.

“First, I went to the Pakistan State Oil’s filling station on Khyber Road but found it to be closed increasing my fears regarding the petrol shortage in the city. Thereafter, I rushed to the nearby PSO filling station on the Sir Syed Road in the cantonment area but it, too, was closed,” he said.

The motorist said he went to another filling station near Gora Qabaristan but in vain but finally, he found a petrol pump on the University Road to be selling petrol.

He said he heaved a sigh of relief after fueling up.

Many people were seen with bottles at filling stations to get petrol as they’d left their motorcycles in the midways after the end of fuel.

Many tankers were parked outside the oil depot near Taru Jabba area on GT Road with drivers awaiting their employers’ nod for transportation of petroleum products to rest of the province.

The motorists and motorcyclists got relief after the oil tankers association announced end to the protest, which eased pressure on petrol pumps.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017