KARACHI: The Compressed Natural Gas dealers associations in Sindh that had called an indefinite strike on the issue of converting gas sales into litres rather than 1(ilograms have for now called it off.

At an emergent press conference called on Friday, the dealers said they had met the minister and the chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in Islamabad to make them understand their side after which Ogra would be holding a hearing in Karachi on Aug 16. `Till then when our issues can be resolved we request our members to open their stations and resume normal CNG sales on Saturday, Aug 13, said Abdul Sami Khan, chairman of theCNG Dealers Association.

`Please try and understand, we had to close our pumps as a last resort. It was not done to cause problems for the public and our consumers. What we did was hurting us as well, as we were doing no business. But we had to stand up for our rights,` he said.

Shabbir Sulemanjee, chairman of the All Pakistan CNG Association, said they met Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khagan Abbasi on Thursday and informed him that Ogra was harassing them over the decision of kilograms to litre conversion of CNG sales despite his orders to go ahead with the change.

`People are complaining that we are raising the cost of CNG by converting it to litres but this is how it is measured and sold in Punjab. CNG is still muchcheaper than petrol and people will be able to see that when they compare the litre prices of CNG and petrol after we convert to litres,` he said. `CNG should cost the same throughout the country, he added.

`The Ogra Ordinance ended in 2015. By law Ogra cannot even fix CNG prices.

Malik Khuda Balchsh, chairman of the CNG Owners Association, said Ogra should have faith in the dealers when it came to fixing CNG prices in litres. `We do it according to a formula.

Junaid Makda, chairman of CNG Forum, said he didn`t understand why anyone would even have any issues with the conversion from kilograms to litres.

`A while back milk was sold in kilograms but it is sold in litres everywhere now, and no one anywhere has a problem with it,` he said.