Pakistan announces free public transport after fuel price protests
State-run public transport in Pakistan’s capital and most populous province will be free for the coming month, officials said, after the government drastically raised fuel prices due to the Iran war.
The announcement on Friday came after street protests and long queues of motorcycles at fuel stations triggered by a late-night decision to impose a 42.7% rise in the price of petrol to 485 rupees ($1.74) a litre.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif backpedaled late on Friday, saying he was reducing the levy and setting petrol prices at 378 rupees per litre.
“This decrease will be applicable for at least one month,” he said in a televised national address reported by Agence France-Presse, adding:
I promise I will not rest until your life is back to normal.
Sharif did not reduce the price of diesel, which will remain at 520 rupees (US$5.60) per litre following a 54.9% price hike.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said on X:
All public transport in Islamabad will be made free of cost for the general public for the next 30 days, starting tomorrow [Saturday].
The government would bear a burden of 350m rupees, Naqvi added.
The chief minister of Punjab – Pakistan’s most populous province – also lifted the cost of travel for state-run public transport, and announced “targeted subsidies” for trucks and buses.