Lorry drivers end strike at Karachi port

Lorry drivers at Pakistan's main port ended their week-long strike on Tuesday after the government promised to reduce highway taxes, although the state did not meet their principle demand of cutting fuel prices, lorry association representatives said.

Goods traders estimated millions of dollars worth of perishable goods had been stranded by the strike.

'All I can tell you is that the strike has ended,' Noor Khan Niazi, president of the Karachi Goods Carriers' Association told Reuters after a long meeting between representatives of drivers associations and the government.

One representative, on condition of anonymity, said that the government had only agreed to cut highway taxes by 40 per cent.

'Our main demand of cutting diesel prices was still there.

But they almost forced us to end the strike,' said the representative.

The drivers were also complaining the government was not providing their trucks with enough security on highways against increasing incidents of looting.

Traders said protesting drivers had put up picket lines on roads around the port and were not letting lorries through.

The government has been cutting subsidies on fuel as it struggles with widening budget deficits and inflation at a 30-year high.