The local industrialists representing various industries including flour, marble soap, pharmaceutical and steel held an emergency meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) against the 16-hour daily massive load shedding and called upon the government to urgently restore the pre-Ramazan schedule of 6-hour load shedding for industry otherwise they will have no other option except for coming on streets.
The industrialists said there was no load shedding for industry in Karachi and in Hattar Industrial Estate only 4-hours load shedding was being carried out during peak hours, however in Islamabad, where bills recovery was almost 100 percent, industry was facing 16-hour load shedding which had crippled the production activities and paralyzed the local industry.
Addressing the delegation, Muhammad Ali Mirza expressed deep concerns over the massive load shedding for industrial sector and termed it an economic murder of the local industry. He called upon the government to look into this serious problem and issue directions to IESCO to restore 6 hours daily load shedding schedule for industry to save the industrial units from closure and thousands of workers from unemployment.
Mirza said that the PML-N leadership during its pre-election campaigns had assured to resolve load shedding issue on top priority after coming into power and regretted that more than one year has passed, but the power shortage has become more complicated and it is becoming impossible to run industrial activities in such environment. He said when after long Eid holidays industrial units have reopened, IESCO has increased the duration of load shedding up to 16 hours due to which industry is almost on the verge of collapse.