ABBOTTABAD: The Hazara petroleum dealers association has threatened to close all the filling stations across the division if the government does not increase their profit margins.

Speaking at a meeting held here on Sunday, the association`s president Raja Irshad, general secretary Javed Iqbal, senior member Shabbir Hussain, Asif Qureshi, Mohammad Haris and Ahmad Qureshi said that petrol pump owners would be forced to close their businesses as currently they were unable to meet expenses incurred on payment of employees` salaries and utility bills with the current meager margins.

They said that the government should increase their profit margins by six per cent as demanded by the central chairman of the petroleum dealers` association. They threatened that if the federal minister for petroleum did not increase their margin they would be left with no option but to close the petrol pumps.

They said that the government should seriously consider the demand of owners of about 12,000 petrol pumps across the country and poor labourers working with them to save the latter from being laid off.-Correspondent