The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged the government to immediately stop unscheduled loadshedding as despite repeated assurances by the authorities the electricity situation is worsening and power-related riots are a daily occurrence. In a statement issued here Wednesday, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher and Vice President Saeeda Nazar said that they fear an anarchy-like situation in the country if appropriate measures are not taken to overcome unprecedented long hours forced closures.
They said that law and order situation is bound to aggravate in the coming days as over 12 hour power outages in the industrial estates is jacking up the graph of unemployment particularly hitting the daily wagers hard.
The LCCI office-bearers said that the most of industrial units had already reduced their working to single six-hour shift from the previous three shifts system. This had led to increased level of raw-material wastage, making production process non-profitable. Now the leading industrial units were experiencing losses despite being managed professionally.
The crisis in industrial sector is not only causing flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to the countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia but had also reduced government revenues drastically. They said that a similar situation had erupted about two years ago but that was resolved with the help of the business community who lent a lot of input in developing a viable load management plan. “LCCI-LESCO Dispute Resolution Committee and LCCI-LESCO Load management committees used to have regular meetings to oversee and overcome the situation promptly”, they said and added that these committees need to be revived and reactivated urgently and immediately so that the issues could be discussed and tackled in an open minded manner.
The LCCI office-bearers urged the President and Prime Minister to take notice of this grave situation and act promptly act to save industrial and social fabric of the country. They said that the government should share its energy plan with the LCCI as the highest-ever electricity tariff and power outages have crippled both the trade and industry. “How the government would establish its writ and from where it would collect revenues to run its day-to-day affairs when the industrial wheel is coming to a grinding halt.” The LCCI office-bearers said that the government should understand that economic well being is a must for democracy. Unemployment, price-hikes, industrial closures always give birth to lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, the government should understand the ground realities and reset its priorities. They said that it is astonishing that on the one hand the government circles were talking of economic stability in 2012 while on the other hand they were not sharing any kind of roadmap to achieve this goal.
