Pakistanis hit by 14% petrol rise
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
BBC News, Islamabad


Pakistan's government has raised petrol and diesel prices by 14% - the largest such increase in the country's history.

The move has been met with protests by manufacturers and consumers. It is the sixth fuel price rise since the new government took office in February.

The latest price rise will put more pressure on the already beleaguered coalition government.

The government says it was forced to make the increase because of rocketing international oil prices.

Anger growing

The new price rise affects all petroleum-based products, including petrol and diesel.

Officials say the latest announcement should have been made a week ago.

But they say it was delayed on the orders of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani until after he had made an address to the nation on Saturday evening.

The address was meant to highlight his achievements since coming to power.

But the new government has had to face increasing criticism that it has not done enough to combat mounting economic instability.

The government blames global economic difficulties and rapidly increasing oil prices for the fuel prices in Pakistan.

But that has not stopped anger growing among already frustrated citizens who have also been hit badly by soaring food prices.

In Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, the mood was not helped when many petrol stations deliberately restricted sales on Sunday before the new prices came into effect in order to sell more at the higher rate.

On Monday public transport in Karachi was hit by a transport union strike.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7517238.stm

Last week when I was in Pakistan, i told my friends & relatives .. that the worst was not yet even seen .. stop these hartals .. and start working like hell .. the world is in turmoil ..

You will be surprised at the inflation when the price of the petrol would be at 200 US $ by the end of this year !

Lol .. it is already started !

That nothing really, Malaysian petrol went up by 48% last month and we are a nett exporter.

That nothing really, Malaysian petrol went up by 48% last month and we are a nett exporter.

Exactly .. there is shortage of diesel in Dubai & Qatar ? Just imagine !

Would you believe that diesel is more expensive then gasoline/petrol these days ?

This is ridiculous.. the previous government placed subsidies on petrol so the prices remained low, and they had to deal with a greater increase in crude oil prices (from $25 a barrel in 2004 to past $100 in 2007). Lower prices of petrol result in the lowering of prices of other necessities like food, which would slow down inflation within the country. I doubt this government actually has any long term strategy to deal with the current crisis, they are just randomly pressing buttons hoping something will work.. A good strategy would be to actually start the development at Thar Coal (start and accelerate exponentially), so we can eventually switch all thermal power plants in the country to coal powered, and at the same time add more power plants to deal with the electricity shortage.. By switching all the thermal power plants to coal we will use less oil and relieve the stress on the natural gas industry. To even further decrease our usage of oil we can switch the majority of cars within Pakistan to CNG (accelerate what we are already doing), and having the extra natural gas production, we can keep the price of CNG relatively low (even lower then it is today). That way our usage of oil within the country drops significantly, and so we are able to import crude oil and export refined oil (similar to what Singapore does).

In Scotland fuel prices just went down today.

Diesel is at £1.31 and Petrol £1.17 thats a huge 14p difference between the two when it used to be around just 6p difference.

However some pumps are down to £1.27 per litre today for diesel because of the drop.

Fruits of so-called democracy

What has democracy or the current government got to do with it? Do you expect them to pi$$ out gasoline? International prices have gone up, the subsidized prices had to go up too. You don't expect the Pakistani governement pay for it's citizen's fuel bill, do you?

I bet PML N will again criticise the move, so to deflect attention from them. They act like they are not in coalition with PPP. No wonder PML N are most popular party at moment, they benefit from priviliages of being in government (thus have a say in running country) but without the risks.

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Let the Pakistanis enjoy. After all they voted for Asif Ghadaari and Nawaz Ganja. Now let them suffer because when a well meaning middle class person is in power and gives freedoms to people, improves the economy, develops the infrastructure they call him 'dictator' and cuss him to hell. But when corrupt, feudal, autocrats sit in power and call a hit on their opponents then everybody just goes quiet (cuz they know their ass will be at the bottom of the sea in a cement block). Let this ingrate nation get what it paid for.

Well said! you sir are my hero.

my thoughts are same as you brother. there is a saying

pooon poon ke unhiyan no li yandi hai ai qoum




Prices of everything has increased to ridicolous amount in past 100 days.. isnt it the fruit... these leaders travel to foreign countries for discussion and decisions on our money and live in 5 star hotels... while country is bleeding due to inflation

Truer words have never been spoken.

Lets this Dhakan qaum reap the fruits of putting their feudal overlords in public offices :)

What the PPP has done is that they've removed the artificial subsidy the govt was paying from the coffers...

PPP may be guilty of alot of things; lekin I cant really blame them for petroleum prices...

The previous govt should have raised prices by degrees so that the effect wouldnt be so great...

Right now the PPP is raising prices once every month...

14% petrol rise goes to Zardari pocket.

IF you have a strong economy you can afford to help the poor by subsiding certain goods.

EVEN when international prices for these commodity rise, IF the economy is strong, price rises for this commodities can be phased in so that the impact on the poor is minimised. (for example when Musharraf was is charge the international price of oil increased from 10 fold from $10 to over $100 a barrel, increases in petrol prices rises were phased)

HOWEVER if you put a idiot like Ishaq Dar in charge of the economy, who proceed to destroy confidence in the economy, who causes investors to flee, who causes the value of the currency to collapse, who cause foreign reserve to decline etc.

THEN the government is definately GUILTY of causing these problems