Islamabad : The government on Friday denied relief of lowering oil prices in the international market to the commuters by keeping the rates for the local market unchanged for next 7 days.
A notification issued by the Petroleum Division here said the prices of petroleum products will remain unchanged for a week commencing June 27, 2026.
Since the oil prices in the global market had gone down to pre- Iran-US conflict days , the public at large in Pakistan was expecting major cut in their rates for the next week.
The government , however , went thr other way around and it denied relief of lowering prices in the international market to Pakistanis who are already facing the worst level of inflation.
Iran -US war began on February 28 this year and at that time crude was trading at $ 69 a barrel. Very first day of the Iran-US war , the Shahbaz regime increased the prices of oil for local market by Rs 135 a liter. During the ME war times (March-May) , the government kept on raising the oil prices without considering their devastating impact on the people’s livelihood. The Shahbaz government used the ME conflict as an opportunity to collect extra Petroleum levy to make-up shortfall in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) revenue collection. The government strategy of making -up revenue shortfall through additional petroleum levy made the people lives miserable. The people of Pakistan expected relief now when the ME war is over and lowering oil prices in the global market had elevated their hopes for cut in their local market , but these hopes remained unfulfilled hopes.