Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has urged the Prime Minister, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Federal Finance Minister, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh to focus on power generation in the country otherwise no measure aimed at economic revival will work.
Chairman PIAF, Sohail Lashari said that energy was the engine of growth but attention was never paid to the overcome power crisis. He said that acute power shortage had not only jammed the industrial wheel but had also deprived thousands of daily wagers of their earnings.
He said that Prime Minister Gilani while assuming the charge of Prime Minister had promised to start work on power projects but no practical steps were taken. He said that construction of Kalabagh Dam was a must to ensure availability of water to the agriculture sector and cheaper electricity to both the trade and industry but present government shelved this important project with a stroke of the pen.
The chairman PIAF said that bad law and order situation and high input cost had already destroyed the industrial sector while the prolonged power cuts are adding fuel to the fire. He said that the industrialists were aimed at supplementing the government efforts to make the country economically stronger but massive load shedding and hike in the electricity tariff pushing the industrialists to the wall.
He urged the government to make full efforts to end power crisis. Funds should be allocated for the large water reservoirs including Kalabagh Dam in the Federal Budget 2011-12. He said that the government should develop consensus among provinces by convincing them that this was the only way to overcome power crisis.
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