Local industrialists in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) strongly protested against the return of massive load shedding, which has crippled business activity, and called upon the government to resolve the matter before the economy is further destroyed.
Addressing the meeting, ICCI President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, Chairman Founder Group Abdul Rauf Alam and ICCI Senior Vice President Abdul Rauf Alam said that Prime Minister (PM) Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had assured that there would be no more load shedding in industrial areas, and IESCO’s recent move to cut power is totally against the position taken by the government.
They said that IESCO has started electricity load shedding for industry in Islamabad during prime working hours from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, which was highly lamentable, as it has badly affected production schedules.
They said this situation has badly disturbed the daily production targets of almost all local industrial units including marble, steel, pharmaceutical, edible oil, flour, food processing, soap, IT etc. They urged the IESCO to reconsider this move and take urgent measure to minimise load shedding for industry so that local industrialists could be saved from further losses.
Abdul Rauf Alam said thousands of workers were employed in the local industry and sudden huge increase in electricity load shedding has rendered them idle for long hours. He was afraid that if power shutdown issue was not tackled on urgent basis by the IESCO, hundreds of works could lose jobs, which will increase unemployment and social instability.
The industrialists stressed that IESCO should keep larger economic interests of the country supreme and take local industry on board to finalise a consensus load shedding schedule that should ensure minimum losses to industrial activities.