The Petroleum Dealers Association has announced that petrol pumps across the country would remain closed for 24 hours starting 6am Thursday until 6am Friday, in protest against the government’s policy of revising petroleum product prices on a daily basis.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Petroleum Dealers Association representatives rejected the daily pricing mechanism, calling it unacceptable for dealers.

They said the association had held consultations after a meeting with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and decided to proceed with a nationwide 24-hour strike.

Meanwhile, sources said all factions of the petroleum dealers association have united over the planned nationwide strike and said petrol pumps across the country will be shut if the government fails to accept their demands.

The sources said the association presented three key demands to the government to break the deadlock.

The dealers’ first demand is an increase in their profit margin from the current 2.6% to 8%.

Secondly, dealers want the government to scrap the recently introduced daily fuel pricing mechanism and restore the previous system of revising petroleum prices every 15 days or once a month.

Their third demand is the abolition of the quota system imposed by oil marketing companies.

The strike threat comes after the federal government on July 18 delegated the authority to determine petroleum product prices to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), which began issuing daily prices for petrol and high-speed diesel through its official website.

The government has said the daily pricing mechanism is aimed at improving transparency and aligning domestic fuel prices more closely with fluctuations in international oil markets.