Acute electricity shortage and the resultant slowdown of economic activities are hitting the Punjab Government’s vision of turning the province into a business hub hard. In a press statement on Monday, PIAF Acting Chairman Nadar Kamal Osman and Autoparts Manufacturers & Exporters Association Chairman Tahir Javed Malik said that there was no doubt that Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammad Shahbaz was doing his best to promote trade and industry in the province and bringing in foreign investment, but it seems that the unemployment graph would keep on going up because of the power shortage. They said that prolonged announced and unannounced load shedding has crippled industry.
A number of large and medium scale industrial units have closed down leaving thousands of industrial workers jobless. They urged the Chief Minister Punjab Mian Mohammad Shahbaz Sharif to accelerate work on small power projects as the energy crisis was aggravating with every passing day. They said that Mian Mohamamd Shahbaz Sharif has the ability to pull the business community of the province out of this mire. They said that Punjab Chief Minister should also pressurise the federal government to ensure unintrupted power supply to the Punjab industry.