Spikes in international oil market prices — spurred by uprisings in Libya and other parts of North Africa and the Middle East — forced the raise in Pakistani prices, said Jawad Nasim, a spokesman for the country’s oil regulator. The price of a liter of petrol went from 72.96 rupees to 80.19 rupees. Opposition parties and even some members of Pakistan’s governing coalition immediately denounced the raise.

Haider Abbas Rizvi, a senior member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, said the price increase was unacceptable because it would further burden Pakistan citizens, who are already struggling to deal with double-digit inflation and chronic power shortages. The MQM briefly left the governing coalition in January when the government tried to raise fuel prices, and Rizvi hinted that the party may once again defect to the opposition unless the ruling Pakistan People’s Party reverses its decision in three days.

The ruling party backed off on that earlier increase to keep the MQM onboard and save its majority in Parliament, upsetting the United States and international lenders whose billions are keeping Pakistan’s economy afloat. The US in particular has an interest in seeing Pakistan stay economically and politically stable because it relies on the country’s cooperation to further its war aims in Afghanistan.

It was not immediately clear if the People’s Party could afford to avoid another price hike this time.

Mohammad Sohail, an economic analyst, estimated the government had lost out on 17 billion rupees ($200 million) by failing to increase gasoline prices since November. Even the 9.9. percent increase on gasoline and other petroleum products wasn’t enough to cover losses, he said.

Last week, the Pakistan Muslim League-N pushed the People’s Party out of its coalition in Punjab. The PML-N is in charge of the government in the province but in the opposition on the federal level.

Officials with the People’s Party could not immediately be reached Tuesday. Also Tuesday, the bullet-riddled bodies of four tribesmen slain by suspected Taleban fighters for allegedly acting as US spies were found in a northwest tribal region, intelligence officials said.

The bodies were found along a road near the Hamzani area of North Waziristan, a tribal region largely under the control of militant groups engaged in fighting US and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan. A note attached to the bodies accused them of acting as US spies.

Local tribesman Syed Khan said he’d seen the bodies early Tuesday along a road near his home. Two intelligence officials confirmed the account on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters on the record.

Taleban fighters have slain numerous tribesmen in North Waziristan whom they suspected of spying for the US , including passing along information that helps American missile strikes against militant targets.