The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wednesday threatened the government to close down businesses if the government fails to control over 14 hours daily load shedding immediately by making payments to the IPPs. In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry was being forced by all the trade and industrial associations to give a call for indefinite strike as the energy shortage have crippled their businesses. He said that situation has turned so pathetic that neither the industrial units are working nor traders are doing any business because of the electricity shortage. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that law & order situation was also getting out of hands due to unemployment because of electricity shortage. The LCCI President said that the government could easily overcome the circular debt issue if the electricity distribution is transferred to provinces. He said that the transfer of electricity distribution to provinces would not only help recover outstanding dues but it would also streamline the electricity supply as more money would be available to the government for power generation. He said that the province that would not be able to recover dues would definitely be getting lesser electricity.
PIAF’s poke
LAHORE: Pakistan Industrial & Traders Association Front (PIAF) has urged the government to exempt industrial estate from electricity load shedding as daily 5 to six hours continuous power cuts have curtailed productions to the maximum. In a press statement, Chairman Lahore Township Industrial Association Iftikhar Bashir, former Chairman Malik Tahir Javed, Iqbal Baig Chughtai, former Chairman of Quaid-e-Azam Industrial Board Mian Nauman Kabir, former Chairman of PAPAM Malik Mohammad Aslam, former Chairman of PMA and LCCI former EC member Amjad Ali Jawa and Baber Mahmood said that load shedding in the industrial estate is causing irreparable loss to the economy besides increasing poverty and number of unemployed people in the country. They said that government silence over power crisis is putting a question mark on its ability to run the country. They said that due to wrong government policies and mismanaged affairs, the industry had almost collapsed and industrialists were left with no other option but to close down their operations. They said had right steps been taken well in time to enhance the power generation, the situation would have been far better.
