Finance Minister Miftah Ismail denied on Tuesday rumours of another hike in fuel prices as petrol stations in several major cities including the capital Islamabad have either shut down or refused to sell petrol citing shortage.

“In the pre-budget seminar I never even spoke about petroleum prices. Channels running these tickers are doing a disservice to their viewers,” tweeted the finance minister.

“There will be no increase in prices today and there is no summary or plan to raise prices.”

The tweet comes amid reports of long queues at petrol stations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as well as parts of Karachi. Smaller cities also reported fuel shortage including Burewala.

Meanwhile, news channels have reported the rumour while WhatsApp groups and other social media platforms have been flooded by forwarded messages claiming that another hike was expected later tonight. It led to citizens scrambling to petrol stations in an attempt to get fuel.

Earlier, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb had also denied reports of another increase in the price of petroleum products.

The government has already increase fuel prices by Rs30 twice in the last fortnight.

While announcing the second hike, the finance minister said that the measure would increase inflation but it was inevitable as it was one of the requirements of the International Monetary Fund.