The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Friday demanded total exemption from power and gas load shedding to strengthen the national economy besides saving the industrial and agricultural sectors from massive losses. The newly-elected FPCCI President Zubair Ahmad Malik and VP SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik, in a joint statement expressing serious concern on massive load shedding, demanded that the government should accord top priority to industrial and agricultural sectors over domestic and commercial sector. They said round-the-clock power and gas supply throughout the year would accelerate economic growth and meet export targets timely besides helping in production of bumper crops. Iftikhar Ali Malik said unprecedented load shedding would hamper the industrial production in the country and lead to reduction in export orders.
He said that the industry was already facing acute energy crisis and the frequent increase in petroleum prices would further reduce liquidity. The high power, gas and petroleum tariffs had created liquidity crunch for importers of industrial raw materials, he added.
This seem all FPCCI and SAARC wishfull thinking as if they do not know the ground realities. Zardari's five year regime was under deep slumber and did nothing to solve energy crises of the country. To say that industrial and agriculture sector should get priority over domestic and commercial sector is not the solution of the problem but may further aggravate the situation. All the sectors are closely interconnected to each other and no sector could be kept into isolation. Every sector should get its rightful share.
Comments are closed.