ISLAMABAD: The protesting owners of oil tankers on Wednesday called off their strike and resumed supplies after the government extended an assurance to resolve their grievances on a fast-track basis.

The government also constituted a committee headed by the secretary, Petroleum and Natural Resources and comprising chairman of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), managing director of the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and the Director General Oil to coordinate with all stakeholders federal, provincial and industry within two weeks to resolve grievances of theoil tanker owners.

`We are calling off our strike immediately as the government has assured us to resolve all outstanding issues, said Mohammad Yousaf Shahwani, chairman of the All Pakistan Oil Tanker Owners Association (Apotoa) after a meeting with a government team. He called upon the oil tanker owners and drivers to start fuel supplies and said it would take 4-6 hours after filling the tankers from oil depots to normalise the supply cycle.

On its part, the government asked the state-run PSO to suspend routine filling schedules to facilitate maximum off-takes by oil tankers. A PSO executive told Dawn the company would provide round-the-clock oil filling by tankers. He said the oil companies, retailers or tankers were usually required to get an invoice for oil offtake before 4pm every day but this condition had been removed because there were dry-out situations in many cities, including Rawalpindi and Islamabad.On July 20, Apotoa and All Pakistan Cartage Contractors Association (APCCA) had announced that they would go on a countrywide strike from July 24 against the implementation of 2009 safety rules imposed by Ogra and then added a list of other demands, including an increase in freight rates and longstanding settlement of provincialgeneralsales tax.

Without taking any punitive action, Ogra started on July 24 checking the tankers being used for transportation by oil marketing companies (OMCs) to reduce the frequent accidents being caused by substandard tankers. It had dispatched four third-party inspectors for verification of claims by the OMCs that up to 40 per cent tankers were compliant with standards.

Apotoa presented its demands to the government which included an increase in freight rates, exclusion of the National Logistics Cell (NLC) from oiltransportation business,stoppage of oil transportation to Peshawar via train, opening of Kohat tunnel for oil tankers, decrease in explosive permit rate, allowing work with same axel, etc.

`None of our 13 demands have been met,` said Mr Shahwani, but added that an agreement had been reached for the resolution of all issues within 15 days.

`The government is responsible,` said Mr Shahwani when asked as to who was responsible for the miseries caused to people by fuel shortage. He said his assoclation had announced strike for July 3 then postponed it till July 24, but the government didn`t take any measure to resolve the issues faced by the oil tankers.

Another Apotoa leader Salman Tareen said they were ready to follow the Ogra`s quality standards, but it could not be done overnight. He said the industry did not have the capacity to roll out more than 350 to 400 tankers a month and hence it needed at least two years to replace all the substandard tankers, adding that the PSO alone had a fleet of 12,000-13,000 tankers. He claimed that the government had agreed to defer the timeline for the implementation of safety measures for two years.

MNA Jamshed Dasti, who was also present in the meeting as an oil tanlcer owners` representative, told reporters that the National Highway Authority and OMCs were making billions of rupees but no-one was working for the betterment of the road safety.

Ogra spokesman Imran Ghaznavi said the parties had agreed that the authority would hold discussion with the oil industry in the coming week to review the technicalstandards2009underclause50fthe said standards to remove the difficulties being faced by the industry in implementing the regulations.

In addition, keeping in view the best national interest and to ensure uninter-rupted supply of products to the general public, Ogra will determine the time period during which industry shall bring their fleet to the level of prescribed standards.

He rejected the two-year deferment claim by Apotoa, saying Ogra did not agree to any such timeframe. However, the time relaxation will be half of the claim, he said, adding that in the interim period, the OMCs would be responsible for any obligation whatsoever in case of any accident causing damage to the life/ property of the general public.

He said Ogra would also resolve the issues faced by the cartage contractors regarding freight rates keeping in view their demand, comments of the OMCs and the computational framework for cartage rate 2009 issued by the government.

The Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) refuted Ogra allegations that OMCs were behind the strike and termed them `highly irresponsible and unacceptable`. In a statement, the OCAC said all OMCs were fully supportive and committed to full fleet compliance to the Ogranotified standards of 2009 and always adheredtothelawsoftheland.

`After the unfortunate incident of June 25 involving an oil tanker and the loss of over 220 lives, the OCAC and its members have already initiated a number of steps aimed at strengthening existing systems related to vehicle management, journey management, driver management and upgrading our existing emergency response plans for compliance and adherence to safety standards.

It said there was complete consensus among the stakeholders on a shared responsibility to comply with Ogra and NHA`s standards, but this required time and till then minimum safety measures would be ensured, i.e. valid explosive and fitness certificates and registration of vehicles, with licensed drivers.